FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
(07/26/2009)
Leftovers
Jonathan Huang
I'm
usually not very good at eating leftovers. Whenever they stay in the fridge,
I have this habit of just leaving it there…to rot. OK, well, maybe not
that long. Can you imagine if my parents came over and I served them the
chicken that was cooked over a week ago? Of course, I could have had a
newer dish prepared, but it would take too long to get ready! Can you
imagine if it were my mother's birthday? Well, that's kind of what
the Israelites did to God back in Malachi's day. They kept the best meat
for themselves and served God their leftovers (see Malachi 1:6-14). Perhaps
they didn't know that God wanted their absolute best. I think it was more
likely that they just thought it didn't matter anymore. As long as they
gave God something , things would be good between them right?
What a different picture we see of the Israelites back in King David's
day. In order to build a temple for God, they gave their offerings
willingly and with a “whole heart.” They sacrificed their possessions
freely to the Lord (see 1 Chronicles 29:6-9). They rejoiced because
they knew that everything they had to give God was His in the first place.
This freed them to be generous and to give their best to God.
When
it comes to our lives, which one of these stories fits us the closest?
Do we give God the leftovers of our day when the best hours are spent
on less important things? Do we tell God that we'll serve Him “later,”
after we've spent the majority of our working lives making money and serving
ourselves? As Francis Chan points out in his book, Crazy Love ,
“It's easy to fill ourselves up with other things and then give God
whatever is left.” Think about this: there's something about how much
we're willing to give God that reveals how we really feel about Him on
the inside – it's related to how much we think He's worth our time,
our energy, or the “inconvenience” of prayer in asking Him for direction
in our lives.
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