Do you have faith in God to give away what you have? Malachi

Malachi 3:10 (NASBStr)

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.

In most of Scripture, the Hebrew word for "test" in the above verse is used in the concept that God is testing us.  It is used 27 times in the Old Testament.  Although it is used most in the Psalms, perhaps the most famous is this usage in the book of Job:

Job 23:10

But He knows the way I take;

When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

In all but one of the cases the word is used in this way, that God is testing us and trying us.   But, here in Malachi we see that God throws down the gauntlet and challenges us to test Him.   When we think of that framework we might find ourselves overwhelmed.   Imagine the act of "testing" God!   Unbelievers test God but certainly not believers!!   Believers are to live in the Fear of The Lord.   Testing God does not seem respectful to the position we believe God takes in our lives.  We live in faith toward Him and putting Him to the test doesn't set well in the life of faith.  In fact in just a few short verses Malachi will condemn the wicked for testing God, as does the Psalmist:

Malachi 3:15 (NASBStr)

So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape. ’”

Psalms 95:8-10 (NASBStr)

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

 “When your fathers tested Me,

They tried Me, though they had seen My work.

 “For forty years I loathed that generation,

And said they are a people who err in their heart,

And they do not know My ways.

The only way to rationalize these conflicting views is to remember that in Malachi 3:10 God is telling us to test Him in regard to our giving.  Unbelievers and unbelief should never test God.  That is arrogant and wicked.   But, if God tells us to test Him in regard to our giving that He will continue to provide even as we give away what He gives us, then, by faith, that should be our practice.   We should not test God when we don't give.   The context here is that when God gives to us we should not hold onto it because we think we will have nothing.  God says when He blesses we are to bless others with that giving and that He will continue to open the store houses of heaven to overflow our lives.   God is not low on resources.   God can and does bless us based upon our attitude toward how we bless others.