Are we giving God our lives or our leftovers? Sometimes it seems like we give God the extra pieces we have left of our lives. We have a good time doing whatever we want and leave what is left for God. “If we can’t use it, we should give it to God, He’s the miracle worker, right?” True, God can do more with our leftovers then we could do in a lifetime of effort. But, what would happen if we gave God more than the fragments? What is keeping you from giving Him your best?
Immobilized by insecurity and frozen by fear, we stay where we are, miserable in our own mediocrity; more committed to comfort than to Christ. Do we give Him the leftovers because we are afraid that if we give Him everything we will go hungry? Are we so worried about getting our fill, we forget that God wants to fulfill our lives and the lives of those around us? We think we need to eat first and make sure there is enough before we give some to God. But what about that boy who gave his loaves and fish to the disciples? If he had stuffed himself, would he have starved thousands of people all around him? Rather than eating it all himself, he selflessly gave what he had to Christ.
God takes what we give and returns it in ways we could never have imagined. It seems counterintuitive that the best way to be satisfied is to give it all away. But the truth is, we gain the most when we choose to willingly give our best to God.
This isn’t something that is comfortable, popular, or easy. However, it is my prayer that we would live lives of faith rather than fear. Not like the crowds who give out of their abundance, but like the widow in Luke 21:4 that Christ may say of me “…she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”
So as we go about our days let us ask, are we giving God our everything today or just our extra?