"Detrimental"

"Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy." (Psalms 99:5)
If you are anything like me, you look for God to be doing certain things in and through your life. What you put your heart into, you expect to see something good to come from it; or at least for there to be something worth all your time and effort. Well, as of yesterday, my plan for paying my tithes came into question. Up to this point I have been paying my tithes based upon my sales; if I billed out $5,000 worth of work, then I wrote a $500 tithe check. It is what I have done for decades, but over the last few weeks the money that was billed out has failed to show up on time; thus causing my checkbook to be ridiculously upside-down. I do not blame God, because I know that God is good to His word, especially when it comes to tithes; no, this is totally my fault, because when things began to get tight, I questioned God's ability to provide for all of my needs. It's a simple little thing, but it will cost so much more than you might otherwise know. I tend to think of it like a funnel, where the big end of the funnel is pointed to God, and the little end is pointed at me. Maybe you don't look at it the same way that I do, but God has no limits to what He can do; me, not so much! I am very limited to what I can do or how I can do it; but the source of my power is amazingly large and powerful! Do you see what I am getting at? That little funnel end is like a bullhorn towards God; the more I trust in Him, the more power is experienced in the things that I put my hands to. It's surely a pretty amazing thing; but it has it's drawbacks also, because trust will always be tested. It has to be tested, otherwise you don't get to demonstrate your trust. It's just like what James has said, "Faith without works is dead;" because trust without opposition is never realized, trust without a trial is never put to test. I heard Pastor Mike give someone an answer to tithing the other day, and I had never heard it explained quite as good as he did. The tithe is established by the laws of ten; there are ten in so many things that have to do with what we do; ten commandments, ten fingers, ten toes, etc. Basically what Mike was saying was that ten is the number of testing. What makes matters even stranger, is that our tithes are very similar to our ability to keep the law; it's almost laughable if we even try! I guess that is what it means by, "God loves a hilarious giver." Really, think about it; because questioning God's ability to provide is very detrimental to your wealth...
"This is what the LORD says, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that? Could you build me such a resting place? My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! "I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word."" (Isaiah 66:1-2) NLT