Going Big or Going Home (Malachi 1:6-14)
This week’s study asked the question:
How has fear made me less generous with my time, affection and money?
The story of Lisa’s friend who repeatedly received horrible gifts from
her mother-in-law had me in tears. If I
were Lisa’s friend, I would feel distant from and devalued by my m-i-l. As I continued reading the lesson, I was
mightily convicted – similarly to how I imagine King David was when Nathan
posed a question about a rich man who took a poor man’s lamb and David reacted
furiously only to learn that he was the rich man! I realized that my gifts to the Lord are
frequently cheap!
I learned that when I honor God, I give Him weight. This also tells me that my gift should be
heavy, a burden, a sacrifice to carry.
Whether I’m intentionally holding back from God or not, my disrespect of
Him stinks!
Abel gave his best! Cain gave
the moldy and wrinkled. I want to be
like Abel. I want to be enthusiastic
about my work. I want to give of my
firstfruits, not the leftovers. It’s
easy to get fired up and motivated initially, but the passage of time and lack
of commitment and lack of focus can become our enemies when it comes to giving
God our best. To maintain that
enthusiasm, we must pray and read and study His Word and engage Him in worship. He doesn’t let go of us, we let go of Him.
This week’s nifty activities included writing Psalm 51:12 on two index
cards and giving them to Christian friends who will prayerfully consider your
life in relation to the scripture and write down where they haven’t observed
joy in your life. What a wonderful
exercise! I pray you all have someone
that you can trust to do this. A second
activity was to sacrifice an item from your closet or jewelry box. Wow!
Life-changing stuff.
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