Pastor Dolapo Lawal has challenged the belief among some Christians that failing to pay tithes automatically attracts hardship or punishment from God.
Lawal, while recounting an experience from his time as a pastor in Maryland, said he once tried to convince a woman who believed her financial losses were connected to her failure to pay tithes.
According to him, the woman repeatedly insisted, “Once I don’t pay my tithes, things are tight for me.”
The pastor said he eventually responded, be it unto you according to your word, after realizing how deeply she had embraced the belief.
He questioned the idea that God would deliberately punish someone simply because they failed to give Him money, describing such thinking as unreasonable.
Lawal illustrated the mindset by pointing out how some people imagine God reacting to unpaid tithes by deliberately causing problems in their lives, saying, “Because, do you know how preposterous it is to think that because you didn’t give God money. And say, you didn’t give me, I’ll be, yeah. You will see. Your washing machine will spoil. I will spoil it. Angel, go and touch the wire.”
He argued that people who see God this way may struggle to develop genuine generosity because their giving becomes driven by fear of punishment rather than love or understanding.
The pastor further said some people have not truly encountered God and therefore perceive Him as someone who is constantly looking for reasons to punish them.
“Some people have never met God. God pampers,” he said.
Lawal urged Christians to change their perception of God and stop viewing Him as being against them whenever things go wrong.
“If you change your mindset today that God can never be against you, just watch, the torment will stop,” he said.
