HONOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER WITH QUALITY OFFERINGS!

Hello [subscriber:firstname | default:Beloved],

It is written in Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase”.  David understood this principle and he wanted to put it into practice in turning down a tempting offer that Araunah, the Jebusite, made to him: a piece of land to build an altar, oxen for the burnt offering and wood. All these should have enabled David to offer a sacrifice to God. “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.  So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver” says 2 Samuel 2:24. David wanted to honor God with his possessions!

Do you honor God with your offerings? What kind of offerings do you bring to Him? Do you give what you do not need, or do you give what you really need? Do you offer the Lord valuable things, or do you give what is old, damaged, or broken? “You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ (…) And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? says the Lord in Malachi 1: 7-8.

God does not look at the amount but at your heart and at the honor you give Him when you bring an offering to Him. If you keep to yourself new banknotes and put old banknotes in the basket of offerings at the church, do you know that you are dishonoring God, even if it is the same amount? If you start spending your income before you put aside your tithes to give them to God, do you know that you are dishonoring Him? Cain did not honor God with the first fruits of his income, unlike Abel his brother and he was disqualified by the Lord!

If you plan to bring an offering to God by giving to the poor some material things such as clothes and shoes, do not offer used, torn items, but rather items in good condition. God will accept your offering!

Beloved, the Lord searches our hearts and minds and He sees in the secret what your offering is costing you and the state of your heart. Did He not accept the offering of a poor widow in the temple – she had given all she had, two small pieces of silver – and rebuke those who gave out of their abundance (Mark 12:41-44)?

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts. “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing” says the Heavenly Father in Malachi 3:10.  When, in spite of your many expenses, you first decide to set aside the tithes from your income, God will make you see His glory for sure because He is faithful! Perhaps because you constantly dishonor Him in the way you give, you do not see Him honoring you in return. Yes, God honors those who honor Him (1 Samuel 2:30)!

Know this, Beloved, the Lord is touched by the quality of the offering you bring to Him.  Some Israelites pleaded with the Lord Jesus for a centurion because of the offering he had made to build a synagogue. Christ intervened for the miraculous healing of the centurion’s servant (Luke 7: 2-10). Because Solomon offered to the Lord a thousand burnt offerings willingly, God said to him: “Ask! What shall I give you?” (1 Kings 3:4-5). 

Learn to honor God your Father with your possessions, with quality offerings, and the first fruits of your income, and you will see Him honoring you in return!

May God bless you!