Give God your Best Portion
"My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun.
In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name,
because my name will be great among the nations," says the Lord Almighty.
(Malachi 1:11)
Passages to be read: Malachi 1:6-14,
When you give God, give Him your best! It has been a controversial thing to understand how we make our choices when it comes to offerings. Some of us want to give our time, an hour out of the twenty four we have in a day. Some of us prefer to give a portion of our daily or monthly earning as an offering to the Lord. Few of us want to offer a part of our energy produced in the body by volunteering in an activity. And many of us want to offer our talents to God as offerings. But the question is, are you giving your best part?
The time you have allocated for your quiet times in your daily schedule, is that the best hour of the day? Or just a tiresome hour where you don't get to do anything else, an hour that is of least important to you? Is the volunteering you are doing comes out of leisure or out of the will to offer, in the midst of the busiest day of the month? When you take your harvest to the Lord, are the fruits and vegetables in your basket fresh enough to be counted as the best of your produce? When you say that you are encouraging your son or daughter to be a missionary, is that because you think he or she is very precious or because the fellow is useless to your family? Think about it. Nobody wants to take a bunch of flowers with dead petals to the alter.
Above all, let me remind you of something that Lord Almighty has said about such offerings; offerings that come out of the least priorities in your life. In the verse mentioned above let me remind you of the word 'pure offerings'. Offerings that are pure in all sides. Offerings that are on the top of your priority list. Offerings that you think you cannot live without.
In Malachi 1: 8, the Lord says "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" Look at that challenge. What is the importance we give to the worldly demands and the heavenly call? For which one do we save the best? To the world or to God? If the world's best institution offers a scholarship to one of your children, which one will you prefer to send? If God calls one of your children to be His servant in of the unknown islands, which child will you encourage to go?
Our offerings should be the best part of ours. In all parts and walks of your life, let God get the best part. If it is your time, select the best hour of your day to be your time with God; the hour when you think that your mind and body are the most active. When you offer your talents, let it be filled with your personal efforts out of practice and perfection. Just remembering Cain and Abel. Just remembering their offerings as sacrifices. Why Cain's was not accepted and Abel's was? Ever thought of it?
Charles J. Ellicott comments on this passage as follows:
"Now, each brought of his own produce, and one was accepted
and one rejected. Why? Much ingenuity has been wasted on this question, as
though Cain erred on technical grounds; whereas we are expressly told in
Hebrews 11:4 that Abel’s was the more excellent sacrifice, because offered “in
faith.” It was the state of their hearts that made the difference; though, as
the result of unbelief, Cain’s may have been a scanty present of common
produce, and not of first-fruits, while Abel brought “firstlings, and of the
fat thereof,” the choicest portion."
I would like to repeat that line which appeared to me the most out of what Ellicott said. "It was the state of their hearts that made the difference!" Not how much they gave and not what they gave. It was just with what heart they gave that mattered the most for God.
My dear friend, when you give God let it be out of your heart that is content; heart that rejoices in God's abundance of blessings. When you offer anything to God, let be THE BEST out of all that you have. And above all, with what heart you are offering it matters the most!
May your offerings be the best and be given to God out of a content heart.
Worship Him with your offerings.
God bless you.
