Saturday, February 21, 2009

Freewill offering

I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, O LORD, for it is good.
Psalm 54:6
How many times do we offer a "freewill offering" to God? Something that we give to Him because we want to, not just because we have to. Do we give ourselves to God because we want Him to mold us into something better for him or because we know that we are "supposed to" and people might think badly of us if we don't? How many times do we give up things that aren't necessarily bad or harmful so that God can do more than he already is in our lives.
When we give everything to God, that means EVERYTHING. It doesn't just mean the bad parts of us. It means the "good" parts too. If we have talents, we should give them to God, so that He can use them for His purpose. That's what ministry is composed of: the talents that God gave us combined with the working of the Spirit in us. If we don't allow the Spirit to work in our ministries, our friendships, our time, and our skills, we can't do what God really intends for us to do. These things might not be ungodly or harmful, but they can always use work and improvement. If we give God only the bad things, He does not have all of us, and He cannot fully work through us. He needs EVERYTHING. He deserves EVERYTHING. So give Him EVERYTHING. And not just because you have to, but because it is a freewill offering to Him because He has done so much for us.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Commitment

Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act
Psalm 37:5-7a
Commit EVERYTHING you do to the Lord. Trust HIM and HE will help you.
Have you ever felt like you needed to have help from someone, anyone, or you would fail miserably? That's why we need to trust in the Lord completely. If we give everything we have to Christ, we have nothing to worry about. He will renew our strength and help us through even our toughest situations. All we have to do is be patient for God to answer our prayers. That might be difficult to do, but it is much easier than taking life into our own hands and trying to fix everything ourselves. So don't stress out about the things that you can't handle anyway, because it won't add anything to your life (Matthew 6:25-34).
Hopefully that made sense to someone. I'm not sure it even made sense to me! :)