Proverbs 23:26 – My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE BEST GIFT WE GIVE. Giving. It is the very nature of God. He gives – a lot and overflowing. The most familiar verse in the Bible reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave” (John 3:16). And He does so, not reluctantly, but freely and fully. Our Lord even told us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Yes, God is the Supreme Giver and has left us in the life of the Lord Jesus the example to follow

So, what does that look like in the day-to-day living out of the Christian life? Let’s address this in three ways. First, the priority of who we give to; then the what we give, and conclude with the chief characteristic making our giving acceptable to the Lord.

In our giving, it begins in our vertical relationship with God before it farms itself out in our horizontal relationships among people. The priority in all of life, and our giving, is the Lord. We are giving to Him. This means we are to see and live all of life through the lens that the most important relationship and the cultivation of that relationship is with the Living God. Basically, our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ must occupy the chief place in our lives, but don’t be discouraged. Don’t whisper, “Jim, I have many family responsibilities; many demands on my life. I barely have time to read my Bible and some days, I don’t.” Yes, I understand, but our sovereign God placed us right where we are with all that is on our plates. Yet, He expects we maintain Him as the chief pursuit in our lives. It can be done. Perhaps not the quantity of time in the Word and prayer we would like, but it can be done. It isn’t a busyness issue. It is a desire and discipline issue. We will make time for what and who grips our heart. Perhaps not a lot of time, but certainly sacred quality time. The priority in our giving is to God long before we give ourselves over to people.

The next thing is the “what” of our giving. As Christians, we often hear in sermons and read in books the exhortation to give our time in serving the Lord; make ourselves available to be used by Him in His service. This is Biblical and right, however, it isn’t the primary “what” in our giving. Honestly, God doesn’t need our service to accomplish His goals in this life. Yes, He uses us. Yes, a non-serving Christian is a Biblical contradiction, but there are many Christians rushing around as busy bees giving the Lord service and missing what He wants most from us. The “what” we give the Lord isn’t our availability first. It is what we read in today’s scripture – our hearts or our entire selves. Paul writes of the churches of Macedonia what they gave to the Lord first and serves as the model for our giving to Him – “They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (2 Corinthians 8:5). God wants our hearts before our hands. Give Him our hearts, and He gets our hands. We will never find a Christian who has surrendered to the Lord Jesus his or her heart who is not a servant of His who also gives Him their time, talent and treasure in serving Him. He wants our affection before our actions but actions always follow our affections.

A final thing in our giving to the Lord is the completeness of our giving to Him. Take a glance back up to the words of Solomon in today’s scripture. He said, “Give me your heart.” He didn’t say, “Give me a portion of your heart.” Nor did he say, “Share with me your heart.” And he also didn’t say, “Live with a divided heart.” We may summarize his statement which really may be an extended paraphrase of what Christ says to His disciples, “Be all in with Me. Give me your whole heart as I gave my all life – heart, mind, and body for you.”

It truly is better to give than receive. And in our relationship with the Lord, the best thing we give Him is ourselves; all of us. He so deserves it each and every day He grants us life under the sun.

PRAYER: “Lord, help me to daily give You what You desire and deserve of me – my heart.”

QUOTE: “Giving our heart to God is not hard when we remember what He gave us – His Son.”