Walk Of Life – Day 3, May 2023 – Thoughts From The Book Of Proverbs

God again and again in Scripture calls upon His people to honor Him with the first-fruits of all that is ours. Cain’s sacrifice, for instance, was rejected because it was not an offering of the first and best of his harvest. Unlike his brother Abel, he gave second best to the Lord (Gen. 4:3–4). The ancient Israelite were commanded to celebrate the Feast of First fruits, which was held on the day after the second Sabbath of the Passover (Lev. 23:9–14). At that festival, the people were to bring a portion of the first fruits of their harvest as an offering to the Lord. Ezekiel looked forward to the day when the restored community of Israel would bring its first fruits to the Lord (Ezek. 44:30).

Our Lord Insists on giving the First to Him.

“Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” – Matthew 6:33. This is a visible act of worship that manifests the intents of our hearts. Giving the first of what we have to our Creator is a tangible way of expressing our trust in Him to meet all our needs. If we take the first and best for ourselves and leave to God only what is left over, we are at least implying, if not outright declaring, that we are not sure whether the Lord can meet our needs.

We all must have heard of great successful people often saying that they have been trained to give the best of everything to the Lord. Our best time, best resource, our best knowledge, our best energy everything should be given to God. The first thing to do in the best part of the day should be to speak to God and allow him to speak to us.

Colgate was a tither throughout his long and successful business career. He gave not merely one-tenth of the earnings of Colgate’s soap products; but he gave two-tenths, then three-tenths, and finally five-tenths of all his income to the work of God in the world. During the later days of his life he revealed the origin of his devotion to the idea of tithing. When he was sixteen years old he left home to find employment in New York City. He had previously worked in a soap manufacturing shop. When he told the captain of the canal boat upon which he was traveling that he planned to make soap in New York City the man gave him this advice: ‘Someone will soon be the leading soap maker in New York. You can be that person. But you must never lose sight of the fact that the soap you make has been given to you by God. Honor Him by sharing what you earn. Begin by tithing all you receive.’ William Colgate felt the urge to tithe because he recognized that God was the giver of all that he possessed, not only of opportunity, but even of the elements which were used in the manufacture of his products.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today our Lord is encouraging us to give all the first fruits to Him and to honour Him with our possessions. May you be richly blessed.