Proverbs 3: 9-10
Honor the Lord with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats brim over (Proverbs 3:9, 10). Why is this so hard for some of us? It was easy for the Israelites to honor God with their best and the first of their harvest; after all they had been walking around in the wilderness for 40 years. The word Honor also means privilege, they gladly gave the best of their grains and barley because they had the privilege to do it, and God had answered their prayers and did what he promised. To better put it into perspective, the “firsts” could have fed the farmer and two other people in his house for a week.
Why do we give God the best of us, the first of us? Because we are nothing without him. He has always kept his promises to us. If he isn’t the first thing that we run to when the sky is falling, then we should check our priorities. He says right there in verse 10 your barns will burst! I want all that God has for me.
You may also know this passage when people talk about tithing. We hold our earthly riches so close and are afraid to let them go, or scared that we won’t be able to pay an important bill. I have watched what it means to give your firsts, and watched the amount of blessings and earthly riches be poured out to where storehouses were full. I have also prayed through a steady stream of tears and wondered what was going to happen next, how God was going to provide. Why do we worry about these things so much, why do they consume us? Anything the devil can do to get our eyes off of Christ, is a win for him.
My favorite saying I’ve deemed my “reality check” is, none of what we have is ours anyways, it’s all God’s. So if this is the case then he can have all of my firsts because he was the one who gave them to me. Christ died for us so that we can live with him forever, so why would I want to give him any less then my best!
Photography: @brandon_nalley