Giving God My Best

In my third installment of New Year's resolutions and goals, I wanted to post a snippet from the book of Malachi. Let's look at the scriptures:

Malachi 1:6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 1:7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 1:8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts (KJV)

This was a scathing indictment against the priests of Malachi's day. Of course in the new testament, every believer functions in the role of a priest (The Apostle Peter calls believers a "royal priesthood"). They had grown so comfortable in their service to God, that they offered second-rate offerings without fear of reprisal or judgment from the Almighty. I fear that too often we have grown too comfortable with the things of God. Jude warns of those who feast and feed themselves without fear in the community of faith. The LORD gave Malachi an earthly example from which to illustrate the point. Often the bible writers use the teaching method of "from the lesser to the greater" as a means of communicating biblical truth. In this instance God refers to fathers, employers (masters), and governors.

Most of us would never think of treating our parents, our bosses, or government officials with the slothfulness and disrespect we sometimes treat our Heavenly Father, Master, and Lord with. Most of us would never dream of disrespecting our earthly parents, regardless of their failures and shortcomings. Most of us wouldn't conceive stealing from our employer, laying out of work, or sleeping on the job (like I said..."most of us"...I realize there are some exceptions to every rule). If a government official invited us to dinner, I can almost guarantee that we would be on our best behavior, look our best, and present him with some type of gift of honor. When it comes time to pay our taxes, we are not allowed to arbitrarily decide what we will give Caesar...and yet we feel such liberty when it comes to One who is greater than Caesar. All these we are willing to do for fallible, imperfect men and women.

And yet, our Heavenly Father (who is perfect) often receives a meager offering from His children. How often do we reserve the best for ourselves, and offer him the lame, the sick, and the blind? Do others get the very best from us....meanwhile the great God of the universe receives a second-rate offering? The bible says we are to seek "first" the Kingdom of God (and His righteousness) and THEN all the other things will fall into place. This year, I want to give God my best....not the leftovers. I am a firm believer that we can never outgive God. This is not only a financial principle, I believe it applies to every aspect of life. When we honor God, He makes sure that we are taken care of.

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