(This message series is inspired and excerpted from He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobsen.)
What Shall I Give to God?
“Sometimes you just can’t give things away. At a garage sale my wife and I had before a recent move, I spied a man looking at a reel of electrical wire. We were winding down and I certainly didn’t want to throw it away. As he put it down and started to walk away, I told him he could take the wire if he wanted it. He wanted it but wouldn’t take it for free. He walked over to hand me a dollar. I refused. He insisted. We compromised and I gave him fifty cents in change.
We often treat God that way, too. When we realize we cannot earn his love, our fallback position is to try to compensate him for it. Particularly when we need him to do something for us we will often find ourselves wondering what we can give to him, or give up for him, that will prove our sincerity.” (p. 52)
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law- justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. (Matthew 23:23 NLT)
How important is giving and what are some of the more important things?
“But what can we give to merit his affection? Is tithing enough? What if he wants everything that I own? Could that be enough? After all, life is more than possessions. Maybe he wants all of my time, too, denying myself any enjoyment or relaxation. Or worse, what if he wants me to go to some far-off land and spend the rest of my life spreading the gospel? How many times has that been promised by those on the brink of death, hoping it would convince God to spare them?” (p. 53) Have you ever negotiated with God in a tough time?
“But where does that thinking lead? The prophet Micah took it to its obvious end. Aware of his own sinfulness, he begs this exact question: “With what shall I come before the Lord?
“Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?” It may have fit the prescriptions of the law, but was it enough to cleanse Micah’s soul? Not exactly.
“Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?” He has seriously upped the ante here, but he still doesn’t think it enough as evidenced in his next offer. “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression?” Trading with God will always lead you to the unthinkable, as it did Micah. He wonders if offering his firstborn son would be sufficient to atone for his failures and qualify for God’s favor. As he so poetically put it, shall I give “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” . . . But even that cannot be enough. Trying to compensate God for his mercy will be as futile as trying to earn it, and it will always leave me guessing whether he loves me or he loves me not. (p. 53)
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. ‘ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! ‘ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14 A Parable)
Jesus also gave us this startling message in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? ‘ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. ‘ (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV)
“If that isn’t a great example of climbing the ladder that’s leaning on the wrong wall, I don’t know what is. I didn’t want to be caught with that crowd.
These moments of insecurity would drive me to my knees in repentance and make me redouble my efforts to be more committed to God. Though I could sustain the increased burden for a few weeks or months, I never had any certainty that the things I was doing were enough to cause him to be delighted with me. Eventually I would slide back to where I had been before.” (p. 57)
So . . . What shall YOU give to God?
“God doesn’t need us to serve him as a means to attain his love or affection. He wants us to serve him out of the love and affection he already holds for us in his heart. If you have never tasted that reality, you cannot imagine the freedom that lies ahead of you. My Father brought me to the place where I realized that even if I never preached another sermon, never counseled another person, never led someone to Christ again, he would still delight in me as his child. That doesn’t mean he approves of everything I do, but he has freed me to know that he loves me— absolutely and completely. I had served God for thirty-four years, always with an undercurrent of trying to earn his favor. It has only been in the last twelve that I’ve learned to live in that favor, and I’m never going back.
That’s when it became clear. It is not the fear of losing God’s favor that takes us to the depth of fellowship with him and transforms our lives with his holiness. It is our certainty of knowing his unrelenting love for us, even in the midst of our weakness and failure, that leads us to the fullness of his life.
Fear had never taken me to the depths of his life or his transforming power; discovering his delight has. I now know that the key to God’s favor doesn’t rest on what I give him but on what he already has given me.” (p. 58)
For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” (Zephaniah 3:17 NLT)
Have you experienced a time when you sensed God was delighted in you?
The answer to the question, not “spelled out” in this chapter, is . . . YOUR TRUST! The only thing you have that God doesn’t already have is your trust.
For Your Personal Journey
Take an honest look at the spiritual things to which you give your life. Are they rising out of your security in God’s great love for you or an attempt to earn his affection? Do you live trying to pay God back for his salvation, or some other act of his on your behalf? Ask God to begin to rearrange your thinking and to help you understand that his love goes far beyond any gift you can bring him. (p. 59)
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