“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 3:10). If our obedience and the subsequent blessings that such obedience brings all serve to prove to ourselves the reality of God and His love for us, that is a happy byproduct but I don't believe it is the main goal. When God tells us, “Prove me now herewith,” I believe that He is issuing a challenge to each of us to bring about blessings through our obedience that are so overwhelming in their abundance that the proof of the existence of God to those who do not yet believe is irrefutable and incontrovertible. The proof of God is a blessing too large for us to have room enough to receive it in its entirety. It is good that we should know that God lives and that He loves us, but it is much more important that we do everything in our power to help others know such important and precious truths. We should strive every day to be more righteous and more faithful in our covenants and keeping the commandments, not because that faithfulness will bring more and more blessings merely for our own benefit, but because the more overflowing the blessings become, the harder and harder it will become for those around us to deny the proofs of God's love for us. We should not be ashamed or embarrassed when God blesses us more richly than we deserve, but rather we should shout from the rooftops just how generous the Lord has been with us, not so that we can boast of our own strength and prosperity, but so that we can prove God really looks after His children. If He can shower upon us, with all of our sins and problems and weaknesses and flaws, then how much more might He pour down upon you, we might tell our friends and our neighbors, if only you would open yourselves to receiving as much of His blessings as you have room for. Qualifying for greater and greater blessings by exercising more and more faith and righteousness is the exact opposite of selfishness, so long as we receive all that with which the Lord blesses us with a sincere and honest pursuit of proving by example the multitude of tender mercies that might rain down upon all who will but keep the commandments.
