When I was a boy, my family ate lunch with my great-grandparents several times a week, some weeks nearly every day. Every single bit of food that wasn’t eaten one day would get saved to eat the next day — and if it wasn’t eaten the, the day after that. There wasn’t a spoonful that went to waste. Of course, if there were guests, a new meal was cooked. She simply would not feed leftovers to guests.
I don’t mind leftovers at all, or second-hand things of nearly any kind, but there’s one single leftover we must never give a single inch to: we must never think God will be satisfied with getting the leftovers of our lives.
That’s what the Israelites did, and the Lord spoke a terrible message to them: “When you present the blind for sacrifice … when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? … Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not uselessly kindle My altar! I am not pleased with you … nor will I accept an offering from you.” (Malachi 1:8, 10)
When we think we can get away with giving God what’s left of our lives, we make a grave mistake. The Lord expecting to be given our first and best did not start with Malachi — consider Abel offering the first of his flock in Genesis 4:4 — and it didn’t end with Malachi either.
Are you giving God what’s first and best in your life? Or are you giving Him what’s left over of your time, your money, your energy, your concern, and your love? Does He wish you would “shut the doors” and stop pretending, or is He pleased with what you give Him?
— Stefan Richardson