February 11
“Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first-fruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine,” Proverbs 3:9-10.
Some people live with the philosophy, “What is mine is mine, and what is yours is also partly mine!” Their thinking is summarized in a few words: “I,” “Me,” and “Mine!” This raises the question, “How are we to use the possessions with which God blesses us?” The author of the Book of Proverbs writes, “Honor the Lord with your possessions.”
We should recognize that, yes, our possessions belong to us in a certain sense; they are things for which we worked or which were given to us by friends or loved ones. However, in the proper sense, all things belong to God. He is the Creator of the whole universe. The psalmist writes, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,” Psalm 24:1. God claims possession of all things in the words of the psalmist: “Every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and all its fullness,” Psalm 50:10-12. The psalmist believed what God said; he wrote, “The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them,” Psalm 89:11-12. All of those references are taken from the Book of Psalms. However, the New Testament Christians were given the same truth. The apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Corinthians, “The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness,” 1 Corinthians 10:26.
We are accountable to God for how we use our possessions, and we should remember that God comes first! “Honor the Lord . . . with the first-fruits of all your increase.” Give to God the first-fruits, not the leftovers!
In Old Testament times, the children of Israel sacrificed to God the sick animals. After all, they were going to die anyway! Through the prophet Malachi, the Lord told His people, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings,” Malachi 3:8. Many people think only of themselves and they provide only for themselves. God is not honored! The Lord Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you,” Luke 6:38.
Many fail to trust God. Put and keep God first in all your thinking, planning, and doing. Then remember that He promises to bless you abundantly: “Your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine!”
Now, what should move us to put and keep God first in our lives? The answer is, “His love!” We should show our love for Him who first loved us! Our gracious God sent His Son into the world to fulfill the Commandments in our place and to take our sins upon Himself and to pay the price for our redemption. Jesus paid the price on Calvary’s cross. The apostle Paul wrote, “You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s,” 1 Corinthians 6:20. What kept Christ on the cross? Not those little spikes! What kept Him on the cross? His limitless love for you and me! His love should move you to begin and end each day trusting and believing in Him. With the hymn writer, we pray:
Jesus, Lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly;
While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide, Oh, receive my soul at last!
Wilt Thou not regard my call, Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo, I sink, I faint, I fall; Lo, on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope, I stand, Dying, and, behold, I live! Amen.