Orderville Utah, circa 1890 (click to enlarge)
Note: My wife and I were asked to give talks today in our ward’s sacrament meeting on the topic of thanksgiving and gratitude. The following is the text of my talk.
One of the greatest blessings promised in the scriptures, and one which has always captivated me in its power and truth, is found in the last book of the Old Testament. In Malachi chapter 3 the Lord says through his prophet:
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)
The commandment to live the law of tithing is perhaps unique in that it comes with an explicit test of its truth – “prove me now,” says our Heavenly Father. Do this and see. Prove me, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour out blessings so great that you won’t even have room enough to receive them into your life. What greater blessings could there be? My wife and I have been witnesses to these blessings in our lives.
I have always thought this promise was special in the extent and abundance of blessings promised by faithful obedience to a single law. But I recently came across another similar promise in the scriptures, based upon obedience to another single commandment. On March 1, 1832, while the Prophet Joseph was in Kirtland Ohio, this revelation was given: [Read more…]
