Tithing is not only a temporal law, it is a spiritual law — and the blessings of honest compliance are boundless.
Consider the counsel of President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, during the October 1996 general conference: "The honest payment of tithing provides a person the inner strength and commitment to comply with the other commandments.
"From Malachi we read: '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.)
"All of us can afford to pay tithing. In reality, none of us can afford not to pay tithing. The Lord will strengthen our resolve. He will open a way to comply."
President Monson related how, when he was a mission president, he offered counsel to missionaries concerning the time they would return home. Along with the counsel to prepare for a vocation and marry the right person in the right place at the right time (quoting Elder Bruce R. McConkie), President Monson told missionaries to always be active in the Church.
"Some of the missionaries would look a little quizzical before responding, and I would say, 'Let me put the matter another way. Three words provide the formula: Pay your tithing.' Each would affirm determination to do so. I truly believe that the payment of an honest tithing will go a long way to assure continued activity in the Church."
President Monson also addressed the other part of Malachi's message — "namely, offerings."
"The concept of fast offerings appears as early as the time of Isaiah when, speaking of the true fast, he encouraged people to fast and 'to deal thy bread to the hungry, and . . . bring the poor that are cast out to thy house.' " (Isaiah 58:7.)
President Monson recalled that when he was a bishop he took his deacons on a tour of Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, where they watched workers, some with disabilities, preparing goods for the poor. "A penetrating silence came over the boys as they witnessed how their effort each month helped to collect the sacred fast offering funds which aided the needy and provided employment for those who otherwise would be idle.
"From that hallowed day forward, we no longer had to urge our deacons with regard to collecting fast offerings. No longer were they simply distributing and collecting envelopes. They were helping to provide food for the hungry and shelter for the homeless — all after the way of the Lord."
