Verse: "Honour God with everything you own; give Him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over." Proverbs 3:9-10
This verse excites and challenges me all at the same time. Honouring God, by giving Him your first and your best will allow us to receive great blessings that will burst and brim over. Doesn't that excite you too? Yet it is a challenging task to keep God #1. Giving Him all you have, because well it is all His in the first place anyway. He just loans it to us to see what we will do with it. Will we use it to His glory, or our own? Where do we place our emphasis each day, on our relationship with Him, or on other relationships?
Are we truly willing to place Him first in our lives? We need to, as told to us in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." If we seek Him first, keep Him first, and give Him our first-fruits and our best, then all other things will be given to us as well. WOW! What a challenge... seek, keep & give!
There is a quote by Doris Greig regarding this topic found in my devotional book today; "If choosing to spend time alone with God is a real struggle -- a heavy-handed demand that only adds more guilt and stress to your already overblown schedule-- it's time to change the way you approach His presence." Another WOW! statement, eh? How do YOU approach His presence? Is he a force who is there when you desperately call out to Him in times of trouble, and then you feel guilt for not talking to Him at other times? Or is he your Daddy, your Papa God who is there whenever you need to talk to Him throughout the day.
We as a church are at the beginning of a 21-Day Corporate Fast, as we want to SEEK GOD FIRST as a church body. We need to know His direction and will that He desires for us as a church. We want to hear from Him, and know that we will be blessed DOUBLE for the things that we are petitioning for throughout these 21 days. Each of us are fasting something different, some are fasting every meal, some are fasting certain foods, some are fasting different activities or hobbies. Something we are giving up, so that we can put off distractions to come face to face with God. I believe that fasting will bring us closer to God, and to know the visions He has for us corporately and also individually, and He will show us how to live those visions out as well. We cannot help others live out their untapped potential, until we can do it in our own lives as well. We cannot all be the teachers, the pastors, the apostles, the shepherds, the prophets, and the evangelists. Some of us need to fulfill our calling utilizing our own gifts and talents for the best of the church body, and the community around us. I believe that doing this in February is not just because it's the first month that came after the fasting call, yet because our church is called to be a church of LOVE, and February is the month of LOVE. God will inhabit our praises, and will teach us how to love each other, love ourselves, and most importantly love Him with a pure and passionate love. He is going to re-kindle the fires of our first love, so that we may in turn love those 'unloveables' (so named by the world) out in our community.
I am excited about drawing closer to God, and also giving Him the first and best! It's going be a long and challenging road, but with corporate prayers, and with Holy Spirit we can tackle anything that comes our way. The devil is ticked off that we are moving forward in the things of God, trying to become the M.E. (Maximum Effectiveness) that God has called each of us to be. God is going to do a great work in the church, and in each of the ministries of the church, including the Childcare Centre (in the staff, the children and their families as well). PRAISE THE LORD... and OPEN THE FLOOD GATES OF HEAVEN, and LET IT RAIN... may our hearts, barns, lives, cups burst forth the blessings of the Lord! :)
We are getting so much snow, as God is trying to RAIN DOWN, but the world has grown so cold, that all we get is SNOW... :) God is reminding us that He washes us pure as freshly fallen snow. His blood cleanses and covers us, and He removes our iniquities and transgressions!
THANK YOU LORD!
BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING!
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