Lesson Helps

Young Men Lesson 20: Tithing—A Spiritual Test

Manual 3; Supplement from "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly" by President Gordon B. Hinckley

Discussion Questions:

  • How would you explain to a friend what tithing is and why you pay it?
  • What spiritual and temporal blessings have come to you or others you know by paying tithing?

Excerpt from "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly" by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

The next item is the payment of tithing. Glorious is the promise of the Lord concerning those who pay their tithes. He says in modern revelation that they “shall not be burned” (see D&C 64:23).

His great promise is found in the words of Malachi. Said He: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. …

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:8, 10).

And then He goes on to say something very interesting. Listen to this:

“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

“And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land” (Malachi 3:11–12).

While tithing is paid with money, more importantly it is paid with faith. I have never met an individual who paid an honest tithe who complained about it. Rather, he put his trust in the Lord, and the Lord never failed him.

When I was a small boy, each December my father would take us all across the street to the home of Bishop Duncan for tithing settlement. The bishop did not have an office in the ward building, and so he had to conduct business in his home. We would all sit in his living room and, one by one, he would invite us into the dining room. Our tithing might be 25 cents, or maybe 50 cents, but it was a full tithing. He wrote out a receipt and recorded the amount in the ward record. The amount may have been so small that it cost more to record it than it was worth. But it established a habit which continued through all of these years. With the payment of tithing have come innumerable blessings as the Lord has promised.

I was married during the Depression, when money was scarce, but we paid our tithing, and somehow we never went hungry or lacked anything we needed.

*To read the full talk,click here.

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