Would you mind clarifying this question "Is there work that you do that you do just for yourself, and that God has no part in?" I don't understand it and how it doesn't relate to my previous post. Maybe you can elaborate.
Regarding tithing it is on our net income. Anything that is of profit 10% goes to God. So if you tithe on net and receive a tax refund you tithe 10% on that, but if you tithe on your gross earning you do not need to tithe on 10% of the refund as you already paid it, but tithing more than 10% is never a bad thing if you are able.
There are many promises in the Bible telling us we are blessed when obeying. Here are just a few:
You are blessed with the Holy Spirit:
Acts 5:32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
We are justified when we obey:
Romans 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
God hears us when we obey:
John 9:31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.
Isaiah 1:19 “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land;
Isaiah 48:18 “If only you had paid attention to My commandments!
Then your well-being would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
The promise of eternal life:
Ezekiel 18:21 “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
Mathew 19:17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one
is good but One,
that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Revelations 22:14 14 Blessed
are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
Promises when you keep the Sabbath commandment:
God blessed the seventh day from Creation. The seventh day carries God's blessing.
Genesis 2:3 Then God
blessed the
seventh day and
sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Sabbath will continue forever as it is a perpetual covenant Isaiah 66:23
God promises a blessing of joy for Sabbath keeping:
Isaiah 58:13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy
day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking
your own words,
14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
We are blessed for Sabbath keeping
Isaiah 56:2–9
Security in that God knows us through keeping His Sabbath
Ezekiel 20:20 hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I
am the Lord your God.’
We are sanctified though keeping His Sabbath
Ezekiel 20:12 Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I
am the Lord who sanctifies them.
Jesus’ promise to each of us is, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3)
I do not obey God for the blessings. He does want to bless each of us. My obedience to Him is because of His great sacrifice for us. To not accept His sacrifice by turning away from sin and obeying Him is how we show God our love. In return He promises to bless us and I have been blessed so much.
Here is a couple sermons from my pastor on the Sabbath, if you have a moment I would check them out.
