Tithing to Turn Around:Art & Rene Harrell

CBN.com “Had I known back before we started to tithe what I know now, I would have been tithing a long time ago!”

Art and Rene Harrell have learned the value of giving. But just a few years ago, their giving was, well…

“…it was raggedy it was raggedy. It was not based on a percentage. It was not based on the Bible. It was just based on whatever we felt at the moment. If we felt like giving a fifty, that was a big tithe for us, actually! We thought we were doing real good. And then there were times we said, 'Well, I’ll just put this five dollars in there. It was pretty bad,” Rene explains.

After retiring from the Air Force, Art started his own furniture retail business specializing in government contracts. He wanted God to bless his new company.

“Rene and I had made a covenant with God that we would tithe."

They expected great blessing. But soon after getting serious about giving to god, they were shocked when a pipe burst in their home … and the repairs came with a $10,000 price tag.

Rene SOT 1:06:16
“It was like, 'What? Wait, wait, this does not compute. We are finally in line with the Word of God and then this happens. This doesn’t compute.'”

Art thought there was more to it.

“It was a faith test. God was testing us, saying, 'O.K., you’ve made a covenant with Me, let’s see if you’re really going to fulfill your covenant.'”

The insurance company said they were not responsible to cover any of the Harrell’s expenses.

“I just kept saying, 'God you said you’d be with us,' Rene explains, 'you said you’d be with us.”

Besides the $10,000 they needed, business was horrible. They made only $40 the entire month.

“We wondered, why should we give anymore? This is the result of giving?”

But their pastor told them to trust God’s word and give ten percent of the forty dollars.

“And I said, 'well what does God need four dollars for,' Rene remembers. And he said, 'just do it, just be faithful.' So I said, 'O.K., whatever. I'll write my little check out.' I just couldn’t believe it that God needed four dollars. And of course He didn’t. He needed me to trust Him. He needed us to trust him.”

That act of faith proved vital.

“About two to three weeks later we received a lettter from the company saying that they would cover and replum the whole house,” Art explains.

They covered the entire $10,000.

“We look back on it and say, 'God you really, really mean what you said -- and you delivered us!'”

With that crisis behind them, the business was still in dire straits. Around this time, Rene saw Pat Robertson teach on the law of reciprocity. The Harrell’s stepped out in faith again, joining The 700 club.

And they had a specific request of God -- a large account so they could compete with bigger companies.

“I said, 'O.K. God, I would like to get a contract for ten thousand dollars. By then I don’t think we had ever even had more than a 10,000 dollar contract.”

A few weeks later, the Harrell’s landed an enormous contract -- furnishing the new federal courthouse in Phoenix.

“The amount was almost four times what I had asked," Rene remembers. "We were in awe.”

Art agrees. "It’s a feeling of freedom that I never had. Before we started tithing, I was always concerned about, 'where is this gonna come from, what am I gonna do here, what am I gonna do here?' I don’t care about those things anymore because I know God will provide.”

Their friends still have trouble believing the secret to their financial success is to give.

“We’ve had people say, 'well how are you guys doing that?' And we’ll just say we trust God and we pray.' They say, 'no, but really, how are you doing it?'

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