Are you saying that God does not just want us to have faith in Jesus, but wants our money too?
God does not need our money, all our money belongs to him Haggai 2:8 The silver
is mine, and the gold
is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
But he wants us to realize that we are rich, not because of our own efforts, but because he is our source, he has blessed us with the power to get wealth, because of the blessings of Abraham
Gal 3:14
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Deut 8:17-18
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God,
for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Paul emphasized in 2 Cor 9 that there is this spiritual principle in play, the law of sowing and reaping
6 But this I say,
He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
We give away money, not because we want to be rich, we give because we are already rich because of Jesus's becoming poor on the cross, and we got his riches in the divine exchange.
I agree with you that Malachi 3 is often misused in many churches to put fear onto the congregation to make them give. That lesson has a simple message, we give to avoid being cursed.
Now, it's important to be clear, just because Jesus' death on the cross has taken the curse away from us, and yes, that includes the curse for robbing God by not giving your tithe and offerings, it does not follow that trusting in the Lord by giving your tithes and offerings is not a principle that Christians should follow.
Galatians 3, my favorite chapter in the New Testament (Deut 8 is my favorite OT chapter), emphasized this
23 Before the coming of this faith,[j] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
This 1 Cor passage is reinforcing the Galatians passage by saying that,
while the Jews were under the law, God had to use a system of punishment to teach the Jews how they should tithe to the Lord. Like parents, it is unwise to reason with a toddler since he is unlikely to understand so you use a system of punishment to get him to learn certain behaviour.
However, once we receive Jesus as our Lord, as we become adults, we would now have the capability to truly understand the soundness of things that our parents taught us when we were young.
You now do the right things because you are aware that actions have consequences
An analogy will make things clear. When your kids are very young, you will often remind them daily, “Do not touch the sharp knives in the kitchen, do not put your hand in the stove, I will spank you if you do”. It’s because when someone was younger, there may not be much point to reason with them.
But when an adult comes to our house, it will be silly for us to give the same warnings, because it would be insulting.
Yet, it does not follow that he should then put his hand on the stove, just because the same warnings that we would give to children, we no longer give to him.