Ideally, children and new converts in the Church learn early on about the commandment to pay tithing and about the promised blessings that flow therefrom. It seems simple enough in concept: The Lord has blessed us with everything we possess, including our very lives. Indeed, He sustains us from moment to moment by giving us breath. We show our gratitude, love for Him and trust in His promises by returning one-tenth of our income to be applied toward the support of the kingdom of God on earth.

Though we readily grasp the principle, however, it might take longer to fully master the lesson with all its nuances. Through life's experience — with its financial pressures, obligations and temptations — our understanding of the law of tithing and the faith required to observe it can be stringently tested.

A passage of scripture familiar to many Latter-day Saints asks the rhetorical question, "Will a man rob God?" and follows it immediately with the charge against errant Israel, "Yet ye have robbed me...in tithes and offerings" (Malachi 3:8).

The fact that the entire third chapter of Malachi was quoted by the resurrected Christ during His visit to the Nephites (see 3 Nephi 24) and was thus preserved in the record that came forth to us as the Book of Mormon indicates the timeless nature of the admonition concerning tithing. We should, therefore, seek to apply it to our own times and circumstances.

The passage states, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation" (verse 9). Could the hindrance of blessings that are not forthcoming because of failure to live the law of tithing be considered such a curse?

During the administration of President Lorenzo Snow, the Church was overshadowed with oppressive debt. In 1899, President Snow was speaking at a meeting in the tabernacle in St. George, Utah, when he received a revelation that he should instruct the people that if they paid a more honest tithing, blessings would be showered upon them. This he did, before congregations throughout Utah. The people responded, and by 1907, scarcely eight years later, the Church had become debt free.

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house," the Lord admonishes in the Malachi passage (verse 10). "Meat," in a broad sense, could be the wherewithal for the Lord's servants to fulfill His purposes on earth.

"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."

But, what if the promised blessings are not immediately forthcoming? It remains for us individually to "press forward" (see 2 Nephi 31:20), trusting that the Lord in His own due time will send forth the blessings. This is where mastery of the principle comes into play. We might ask ourselves: What test of faith would there be if, in every instance, the blessings did come immediately?

Part of the test might come when we observe the relative prosperity — even opulence — of those who do not obey the law of tithing. Malachi addressed this in a portion of Chapter 3 that we perhaps neglect in our study and teaching:

"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

"And now we call the proud happy; yea they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered" (verses 14-15).

We might remember that many blessings, including some of those that come from paying tithing, are spiritual in nature. Malachi expresses such perspective in noting that a "book of remembrance" is kept of those who fear the Lord. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (verses 16-17).

May we, through our continued obedience, come to appreciate more perfectly the law of tithing.