Giving God Our Scraps
Scripture Reading — Malachi 1:8
“Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
God is our greatest authority. We wouldn’t give our earthly authorities our scraps. Yet so often we offer God the leftover portions of our time, money, energy, thought, and emotion. He gets the scraps and rejects—just as the Israelites were offering the worst of their animals in sacrifice.
It must have been a burden to care for a blind or lame animal. The temptation to sacrifice such an animal would be very real. Wouldn’t a blind or lame animal suit God’s purposes just as well as any other animal?
We face a similar temptation. We pray with the five extra minutes we might have and aren’t sure what else we can do with that time. We help with a service project on a Saturday that is “free” on our calendar. We’re happy to tithe as long as we have some disposable income. We read that deep religious book if we’re in between novels.
We have to admit, though, that extras aren’t really sacrifices. When we willingly sacrifice time, money, or energy that have value to us, it settles the greater value of God into our hearts and minds. God sacrificed his only Son for us. Certainly he is far more worthy of our best than any earthly authority.
Are you giving your best to him?
Dear Jesus, please forgive us for not treating you according to your full value. We want you to have our best. We want you to have our extras too. We want to be fully yours. Amen.
About the author — Scott DeVries
Scott DeVries has served as a church pastor and as a ministry coordinator in the Holland, Michigan, area. He currently works at facilitating connections between the more than twenty ministries and 1,100 churches of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. He has a passion for prayer, church organization, and studying the Scriptures in their original languages.
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