So after taking a day off to collect my thoughts and get over some stuff that was going on at work I am back with my fourth installment in my series of Daily Devotionals that are personal and my own thoughts on stuff that I read from The Bible but that I also hope speaks to those who read them as well and touches them in some way and maybe helps them to understand Jesus Christ more or Christianity more or maybe even help them to break free of the chains that bind them and help bring them to know Christ as well. I truly do believe that to know and share Christ is the meaning of life and that all else is fluff or useless or dangerous. I am not a zealot or a fanatic, but I desire strongly that all my friends and loved ones and family and aquantinces would come to know the Love of God and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, because it is truly the only thing that can set a person free and fulfill all of their desires and purposes for even existing. Anyways, this fourth devotional deals with giving yourself completely to God as a tithe or offering and how even if you give everything, God will give it all back and more.
Give to Receive/Lose to Find by Michael James Waymire
S (Scripture) Deuteronomy 14:23- "Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always."
O (Observation)- I find this passage of scripture to be so incredibly beautiful and full of a strange sense of hope and love. Why hope and love do you ask? Well, I say hope and love because of the fact that, as evidenced by this passage from Deuteronomy about tithing, God does not only want you to give part of what you produce to him as a tithe offering for all that he has done for you and for all that he has allowed you to be able to do, but because even in the act of you giving to him, God wants to and will give right back to you as well! God wants to share the offering that you are giving him by having you simply give of your enjoyment and thanks for being with him at the place where he has decided to put his name, or wherever. I find that so amazing that God, even while being given what is due to him, in a way gives it all back to you and more, by allowing us to enjoy what we have given to him, but also be able to enjoy it in a new and awesome way, by being able to enjoy it with him. God isn't a God who blankly receives our sacrifices and offerings and tithes, but he is a God who joyously accepts them and at the same exact time generously gives back to us infinitely more than we could ever even begin to give to him. So even while you are giving and tithing and sacrificing and offering to God, you are in actuality receiving and even being given back what you gave plus a whole lot more! God is truly a blessing and I thank him for his kindness and goodness and Mercy and Love.
A (Application)- I need to give back to God what is due to him, which is all of myself and nothing less. It is said that the only way to save your life is to lose it, and that makes total sense when you give up your life completely to the Lord, because not only will the Lord give you your life back, but he will give you your true life that you never had in the first place and he will give you ever so much more as well. I need to give up my life so that I will not lose it, and I need to give up my life because I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who saved my life, and because my life is not my life but is Jesus Christ's and so I need to give it up to him because he and he alone deserves it. If I can truly give all of myself to him, he will give me all of himself, and I will have received true life and everything else that I have ever needed or wanted as well.
P (Prayer)- Lord I pray that I would joyfully give all of my heart, my mind, my body, my strength, and my soul to you. I pray that you would use me to do your will and that I would fulfill the purpose that you had for me when you first created me. Lord may I truly be all of yours and may I truly have all of you as well. Thank you for everything you do for me and help me to appreciate it and give back as well. In Jesus name I pray Amen.
Thanks once again for reading if you did read. I hope that in some way the character and love and joyful giving spirit of God was revealed to you in some way and that you learned more about God and what he is all about. God truly just wants to have a relationship with you and for you to have a relationship with him, for that is the purpose of life and without it you will never find true happiness or fulfillment. Jesus Christ desired so much to be with each and everyone of us that he died on the cross to erase the debt and separation that sin had caused and he did it with you in mind and he did it with a full heart because he knew that by sacrificing himself he would be able to have a chance to be with you and have you be with God the Father in Heaven forever. Do not allow the wisdom of the world to fool you... You are Loved and you bring God joy and God wants to know you and for you to know him as well. Please dare to break free and experience true life and true love in Jesus Christ who is not a man of hate and judgment but who is a God of love and truth and freedom. I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would move in you and in me and that we would all come to know God more and more and draw closer and closer to him during every moment of every single day. In Jesus name I pray Amen.
And I rebuke the doubts racing through your mind right now... I rebuke them and ask that they would be silenced and erased forever and replaced by the truth and counsel of The Holy Spirit of God who leads the hearts of men to Jesus Christ.
Have a Great day and please reply at will with whatever you want to say! =)