Money Matters: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

Giving Money God’s Way: First Fruits

It takes no brains to be an impulse spender. Advertisers and marketing people study your behavior, your preferences and your life patterns to determine best when to jump you with their seductive spending come-ons. Food shopping, for instance, is no longer just food shopping. You are bombarded with marketing messages from the moment you drive into the parking lot, from the huge window signs to the hanging TV sets, chattering at nobody, to the point-of-purchase displays surrounding you as your cart crawls forward to the checkout clerk.

Let your gifts to your heavenly Father come not only from a passionate heart but also from a brain that plans. “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9,10).

Do you get the point? When you set aside God’s portion first, two things happen: first, you show that God really is number 1 in your life, worthy not of occasional leftovers but worthy of top billing; second, you can expect that God will bless you back with his spiritual and material gifts so that you can give again.