Do You Give Your Best

When you give something to someone to help them out, do you give your best, or do you give what you no longer want or need? When you take things to the Good Will box or to the shelters, do you take junk that needs repairing? Do you take clothes that are worn out? Or do you first fix the torn pieces of clothing, do you put batteries in the toy and clean it up, do you make sure that what you are giving is worth something to someone?

What about your worship time? Do you give God your best when you are worshiping Him? Do you sing praises with all your heart, or do you just read the words off the screen and sing with no feeling? Or worse yet, do you just stand there and not even open your mouth or your heart to Him? How about when you are facing a situation that you need His help, how well do you praise Him then? And then when He answers your prayers, do you go back to praising Him with little or no feeling again?

When you are at work, do you give 100%, or do you just give what the next person is giving, so that you are not working harder than anyone else? Do you go in everyday with the attitude, I am going to give it my best today, and treat the people around me with the love of Christ. Or do you drag yourself out of bed and mope around until you have had your caffeine fix and then start speaking with your co-workers?

When you speak to your family members, your spouse and your children, do you speak to them with love and respect? Or do you just call them when you need them to help you with something? In other words do you spend quality time talking with your children each day, genuinely interested in what they did that day? Do you even know what your children did that day or who they spent the day with? What is your spouse feeling right now? Are they well, and happy, or are they stressed and overworked?

Matt. 7 v 12.....Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets....

2 Cor. 9 v 6-8....But this I say, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work......

Gal. 6 v 7....Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap......

Those verses pretty much tell us the way we are to sow. First of all we give with our hearts and not just so we can get back. Second we give our best, because what we sow is what we will get back into our lives. Third, the first memory verse many of us as children learned was "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you". In other words, you don't give something to someone that you would not want for yourself.

And most importantly, when we praise Him, we praise Him with all our hearts, our soul and our minds. We do not stand looking around to see what everyone else is doing during praise and worship. This is not the time of service to the Lord to visit with your neighbor about what they did yesterday. This is the time to prepare your hearts to receive the word of God, so that the word will fall on fertile ground, and not fall into a pile of mulch because you've got so many things going on in your head that you are not even listening. When you walk out of church feeling the same as when you walked in, you missed the message! You missed the presence of the LORD!

Don't miss out on what God has for you. He gave you His best when He gave you His Son, Jesus to die on that cross for you. Can't you at least give Him some time in your day everyday to praise and thank Him for what He did for you? How much time will you give Him today?

Remember you reap what you sow. Think about that the next time you need the Lord, how much time have you invested in Him and His word? He is always there for you, but you have to know where to find Him. AMEN! For instance if you need healing in your body, do you know where to look in His word to receive that healing? If you need help with your relationships, do you know where to look for His instructions on how to build better relationships? If you need assurance of His provisions, do you know where His promises are in the word to you?

God loves us each and everyone, regardless of how bad we have messed up in the past, His Son has paid the price for our past, that bill is marked PAID IN FULL! We just need to grow in Him, so that we can sow into others lives the riches He has sown into ours. AMEN!
Neta