Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

As long as I can remember, I have enjoyed worship in church.  Whether it was singing hymns in church growing up, or more contemporary songs in our youth group.  Or now in the church I attend, the experience is much different, but no-less worshipful.  Music has a way of allowing me to showcase my joy and thankfulness to our God easily.But worship is not always easy, and sometimes the worship that is the "hardest" provides the greatest return.Recently God challenged me in the area of finances.  It is not an easy challenge to accept, but I did it regardless, and began to trust Him more throughout the process.I quickly learned that its not meant to be a forceful challenge, but an additional opportunity for worship of our God and King.  When I was looking through verses on tithing to share, God was clear to me that I should be looking for verses on worship, not tithing specifically (as there are many verses related to tithing in the Bible).  The verse that stuck out the greatest to me was...Psalm 71:8"My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long."As soon as I read this, a very common phrase that we have all heard came to mind..."PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS"Normally this phrase is uttered by someone who is extremely confident in something they believe in and they want to make a financial bet about it.This is exactly what God calls us to do.  He wants us to be so confident in Him that we not only tell others, but test Him in our giving.  He wants us to put our money where our mouth is.We may not think twice about praising Him with our mouth in church or even around our friends, but how much more should be praise Him with our money?!?! This should be an on-going part of our praise and worship, right alongside the music and singing.Take a look today at how you worship God.  Would you say you are "all-in" when it comes to worshiping him with your finances, as if you were on the front row with your hands raised, screaming out in worship without caring what those around you think? Or are you the person who quietly mouths the words of the worship song in the back of the church, waiting for the song to be over?Think about what true worship of God with your finances looks like.  It is different for everyone, but you will know when you do it, trust me, it took a long time for me to experience it, but now that I am, and its amazing.So go ahead...get to worshiping, and put your money where your mouth is!