Am I giving God my best? (Proverbs 3:9) This second question really flows out of the first. If I honestly view myself as a steward and not an owner, I won’t have any trouble at all with this command:
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce Proverbs 3:9 (ESV)
Today we no longer measure that with our crops, but rather with how we use our money. Do we give God the very best off the top, or does He only get the leftovers? This is a very serious matter, as God indicated when He spoke to the prophet Malachi:
Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Malachi 3:8-10 (ESV)
God said that His people were actually robbing Him when they failed to bring their firstfruits, the entire amount of their tithes and offerings to Him. We obviously don’t have time to examine the topic of tithing here, but let me just say this. If you’re using all your resources for the things that you want and then just giving God the leftovers, then there is just no way that you are truly longing for Jesus. In fact, you’re actually engaging in the very same lifestyle of those who live by greed and indulgence and who will one day weep and mourn when all that you have is destroyed.
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