08
Honor the Lord with Your Wealth
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Proverbs 3:9-10
When was the last time you really felt honored?
Maybe you were given a seat of honor at an event or your coach airline tickets were unexpectedly upgraded to business class. Maybe someone spoke highly of you in a speech or wrote you an appreciative card. It feels good to be honored, doesn’t it? Sometimes we deserve the honor, sometimes we don’t, but we receive it gladly anyways.
God always deserves to be honored. Always and in everything we do. He’s earned it. He deserves it. And one of the ways we can honor God is by bringing to Him the first and best of all we have. In Scripture, this is called the first fruits. It is a biblical principle from the beginning of time to the very end of time. God has always, and will always deserve and demand the first and the best. Each of us has the opportunity to honor God with every part of who we are, by giving him the first and best of our time, talents, focus and energy. The Bible also goes out of its way to remind us to honor God with our wealth.
Not only is this honoring to God, but it’s also a good practice for your own household. God’s word says that not only will God's house be full of provision; but through your obedience there will be an overflow of provision in your own house as well. Being obedient and honoring God with the first and best of what you have will actually cause a blessing to rest on your house. The honor you show God will, in some way, come full circle back onto your household. This isn’t a man made principle or some prosperity message. These are the inspired words of God that declare a promise: You honor God, God will bless you. You obey God, God will uphold what He said He would do. Simply put; we can’t out-give God, and when God gives, there is plenty more where that came from. God doesn’t just drip down blessing; God pours out blessing on those who are worthy of it.
Now this concept can bring up a whole host of other questions, and it’s something that can and has been perverted, twisted, corrupted, mis-interpreted and intentionally mis-used over the years. Many cunning and deceptive people have attempted to fleece the gullible sheep into thinking that if they give $1000 to the church or to a particular ministry, they are guaranteed $2000 back. That’s a pretty sweet deal! A 100% return on investment. Many people, even those who aren’t even Christians, would sign up for that 100% guarantee right on the spot.
The problem is that not only is that belief not biblical, it’s downright evil and totally opposite to the heart that God actually calls us to have. True blessing is the result of having a pure heart that is aligned to God’s own heart and seeks to honor Him. Blessing flows out from the presence of God, and falls on those who have been faithful and honorable with the little with what they already have. Being faithful with what you have now requires that your heart is aligned to God’s own heart. Blessing comes as a result of desiring to honor God, not from the result of desiring to honor ourselves or be blessed for yourself. Either you will direct money where it needs to go, or money will direct you where you don’t want to go. Don’t let your heart become twisted in a way that dishonors God!
Let’s be people who leave a legacy of honoring God from a pure heart!
Maybe you were given a seat of honor at an event or your coach airline tickets were unexpectedly upgraded to business class. Maybe someone spoke highly of you in a speech or wrote you an appreciative card. It feels good to be honored, doesn’t it? Sometimes we deserve the honor, sometimes we don’t, but we receive it gladly anyways.
God always deserves to be honored. Always and in everything we do. He’s earned it. He deserves it. And one of the ways we can honor God is by bringing to Him the first and best of all we have. In Scripture, this is called the first fruits. It is a biblical principle from the beginning of time to the very end of time. God has always, and will always deserve and demand the first and the best. Each of us has the opportunity to honor God with every part of who we are, by giving him the first and best of our time, talents, focus and energy. The Bible also goes out of its way to remind us to honor God with our wealth.
Not only is this honoring to God, but it’s also a good practice for your own household. God’s word says that not only will God's house be full of provision; but through your obedience there will be an overflow of provision in your own house as well. Being obedient and honoring God with the first and best of what you have will actually cause a blessing to rest on your house. The honor you show God will, in some way, come full circle back onto your household. This isn’t a man made principle or some prosperity message. These are the inspired words of God that declare a promise: You honor God, God will bless you. You obey God, God will uphold what He said He would do. Simply put; we can’t out-give God, and when God gives, there is plenty more where that came from. God doesn’t just drip down blessing; God pours out blessing on those who are worthy of it.
Now this concept can bring up a whole host of other questions, and it’s something that can and has been perverted, twisted, corrupted, mis-interpreted and intentionally mis-used over the years. Many cunning and deceptive people have attempted to fleece the gullible sheep into thinking that if they give $1000 to the church or to a particular ministry, they are guaranteed $2000 back. That’s a pretty sweet deal! A 100% return on investment. Many people, even those who aren’t even Christians, would sign up for that 100% guarantee right on the spot.
The problem is that not only is that belief not biblical, it’s downright evil and totally opposite to the heart that God actually calls us to have. True blessing is the result of having a pure heart that is aligned to God’s own heart and seeks to honor Him. Blessing flows out from the presence of God, and falls on those who have been faithful and honorable with the little with what they already have. Being faithful with what you have now requires that your heart is aligned to God’s own heart. Blessing comes as a result of desiring to honor God, not from the result of desiring to honor ourselves or be blessed for yourself. Either you will direct money where it needs to go, or money will direct you where you don’t want to go. Don’t let your heart become twisted in a way that dishonors God!
Let’s be people who leave a legacy of honoring God from a pure heart!