A dilemma is a situation with unsatisfactory choices or a situation in which somebody must choose one or more unsatisfactory alternatives.  For example, how do you get credit? First you must have credit established. If you want a credit card, you will be asked if you have any debts, and if you have none, then you have no credit record. No credit record means you will not be eligible for a credit card.

            What dilemma do we see in the book of Malachi? God reaches out through Malachi to Israel but Israel again turns a deaf ear to God. We know that Israel was God's chosen people but that doesn’t mean that He loves them more than anyone else. God loves everyone equally, but that's not the same way He uses everybody. God had pursued Israel first by choosing her, saying "of all the nations in the world, I've decided to make you My nation, so you can tell all of them about this great wonderful God” yet Israel refuses to obey God.

            Are we facing a dilemma in our relationship with God? If we deny our failures in our relationship with Him, it leads Him to denial of His blessings, and that's a dilemma. God doesn't want to deny His blessings; God desires to show and express His love to those that love Him, to those that are called to be His children. History is there for it. It is one thing when you sin, but you compound it and gets much worse when you hide it, when you deny it. Have you ever in your life found that by ignoring a problem, your relationship gets better? It doesn't. It might get better for the one who wants to live in denial because they don't want to deal with it, but in the end they get what they don't want to get. The relationship won't get better, it decays, because the relationship is being attacked and the good that the other person wants to do is hindered by denial of the reality. We need to evaluate our life today because some of us are very close to that situation.

            Malachi 3:6-7 "For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. "From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?” The denial here is the lack of dependence on the Lord. We deny we have left or act like we do not know how to return. We are trying to live life without Him. But when you don't live in denial and you say "Lord, You know that I've failed You so often, I am so imperfect", that sets you in a situation where God can deal with you and help you. You have to place your dependence on the Lord.

            Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and offerings.” We're willing to take anything that God gives us - eternal life, abundant life, you name it, but if He puts in your heart a desire of His, "that I would like to take a portion of what you make and use it for My kingdom", we hesitate and make excuses to God. That sounds like you have a problem with money. In the first place, where does all our money come from? Not your boss; God is using your boss to get you what you need. There's plenty of historical proof, and even in your own life, where when the boss wasn't there yet God still supplied. The specific here is money, but let’s deal with the principle: God has given to you everything you need, your possessions, your money, your family and your position, even your time! There are Christians who won't get involved in ministry because they just can't afford the time. But who gave you the 24 hours? If He's put in your heart that He will use you for something eternal, but it's going to take this much time and you resist, who's the one living in denial? It's not God who's holding back; it's you who's holding God back. You’re in denial because of your lack of trust in the Lord.

            Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” There are many reasons the Old Testament was written, but one of them was for us to be taught. By watching what went wrong with these people, we can maybe learn from their mistakes. There is a terrible misunderstanding because the tithe in the Jewish days was nothing more than a tax to feed the Levitical priests. It had nothing to do with free will offerings. God had set up a government of religious leaders called Levitical priests, and He expected all the tribes of Israel to help feed them. When Israel did not pay its taxes to the temple, the priests went hungry and had to stop what they were doing for the Lord and go out to work another job so they could feed their family. Very clearly from Scripture, we see that God's intention is a real desire to bless and to share the riches of His love and grace with His people, and to let them really enjoy the fruit of who God is..

            God in His loving kindness still provides us things; our needs, our food, shelter, people in our life that love us - He wants to heap all these, the better things of life, the peace that lives inside you, the calmness, the contentment are things that God just wants to pour on His children. That's His desire. And it's interesting here that it's one of the first times in Scripture that God says "Test me" to a people that are rebellious. In other words, God is saying, “If you're willing to stop living in denial, I'll show you the way to an abundant life.”

            Are you in a dilemma today? If there's interference in your relationship with Him, for sure He's not the One with the problem. You don't live in denial when you realize that you depend on the Lord, trust in Him and honor Him. God wants to have a deep and intimate relationship with you, don’t waste it by living in denial.