Firstfruits
Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Proverbs 3:9-10
Most of us don’t have actual physical firstfruits to offer anymore. A few still garden, but very few of us live solely out of our agricultural pursuits. Does that mean that this verse doesn’t apply to us anymore? I don’t think so. We all have the same precious commodity that we can offer the firstfruits of to our Lord. Talk to anyone, and the same topic comes up over and over: time. “I’d love to do more, but I just don’t have time.” But, is that the correct way of looking at our service to our Creator? We all have the same amount of time, it’s what we place a priority on that needs to shift.
Priorities… I think it boils down to that. Where are our priorities? The Word addresses that a lot of different ways. And goodness knows I have not always set my service to the Lord as a priority. So, as I set about to write this particular post, it’s a tough one. I made a comment to a friend last week that I sometimes feel as though scales have fallen off my eyes lately. Things that seemed to make sense to me one way, now are completely clear in another way in the light of His Word. Proverbs 3:9-10 seems to actually give us the promise that if we honor the Lord first with our time that we will have more time to accomplish what we need to.
This subject has been on my heart for months. I remember texting a friend late last summer, because I couldn’t get my mind off the fact that we give so little time to our Lord compared to what He gave for us. I got hung up on tithing for a while, but I think that the more important quantifier here is quality, rather than quantity. Are we giving the best of ourselves to Him, or are we giving the leftovers? “I’ll show up to church, if I finish this, or if I don’t need to get ready for next week”. “I was too tired after my day, to come to Wednesday night service.” How often has that thought crossed your mind? Or, “I’ll read my devotional later tonight, right before bed, if I’m not too tired.” If these ideas ring a little too true for you, I can assure you, you’re not alone. I’ve been there. I missed Sunday night services for years with the only excuse being that it was my only night to just hang around the house. What I’ve found, since dedicating myself to serving the Lord first with my time, is that Sunday Nights have become the service that I find the most valuable. It is so often food for the church. Meat that my soul needs to continue to grow strong and healthy in my walk with the Lord. Many times Sunday night sermons are deep and thought provoking, and often push me to go home and read further on the subject.
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7
Once I made the decision to give priority to my time serving the Lord. I had to follow through by making changes to my attitude. I have, in the past, groaned and fussed when it got close to time to head to a church service. I was showing up out of duty, and not with a servant or worshipful attitude. Honestly, changing my attitude in this area was a process, and one that I spent some time in prayer over. Even now, I continually have to work on my attitude about my morning devotions. I am not a natural early bird. In fact, if you ask my kids, they would say to avoid waking me up at all cost. I usually require several minutes to come to full alertness, and I’m not happy about being awake for a while after that. So, even though I work on rising early, and spending time in prayer and reading in the mornings, many times I have to confess my poor attitude about being awake before anything else. The amazing thing is: God is faithful to bless our efforts, even if they’re sad pitiful little efforts in the beginning. As we experience these blessings, it gets easier and easier to look forward to doing it again.
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. Romans 11:16
When you consider how Paul put it in Romans, if we offer our time to God, putting service to Him first, placing priority on that service, then the remainder of our time is made holy by our offering. Looking back to to Proverbs with this in consideration, and it makes sense. When we give to Him first, and set Him as our priority, we obviously benefit the most from this arrangement. Making that initial sacrifice of our time may be the hardest part, but it’s definitely worth giving a try. I can’t even imagine going back to where I was before.
