What God Truly Wants From Me
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Micah 5:1-15 and Psalm 50: 1-23 (NIV)
(Lim Siong Heng Raymond from Worship & Music Ministry)
READ:
For this devotion, I have focused on the verse Psalm 50: 9-11.
I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
OBSERVE:
From these verses, I understand that God does not desire nor have need of our giving, whether it be money or time, because all things are already His.
APPLY:
When I was a young Christian starting out on my first job as a waiter, I tried to ensure that I checked all the boxes of a “good Christian”; I tithed accordingly and gave a portion to my parents. It continued for a few years until I was preparing to tie the knot and along came the added financial commitments of wedding ceremonies (not one but three because of relatives in Malaysia and Korea!), a HDB flat and a newborn. I started to reduce my giving and eventually “negotiated” with God to settle at tithing less than 10% of my income for many years.
In 2016, I fell out with one of the shareholders in the company and left to start my own F&B consultancy. Faced with the prospect of having no regular income, it was the most frightening time of my life as I wondered how I would make the mortgage payments, raise a growing kid and so on.
During this time of testing, I resolved to continue trusting God and when Pledge Sunday came in 2017, I wrote down the same amount that I had been giving the year before.
Next year will be the 10th year of running my own business and as I look back, God has so graciously and providentially supplied all that I need, and more.
As a mid-life Christian now with my son enlisting in the army this year, I am learning what God truly desires of me. When I am able to walk this journey in obedience with Him, the giving and the service will come naturally to me. What He really desires is a heart of obedience. He wants all of me – all that I say, do and think.
DO:
I will not allow my “sacrifices” in the form of time or offerings to be the primary act of worshiping God. A true heart of sanctified obedience will delight God more than my offerings.
PRAY:
Abba Father, in my walk with You on this side of eternity, there are many times when I stumble at work and in my personal life, and I make the mistake of thinking that I can “earn” Your forgiveness by serving You nominally in Church or in my giving. Thank You for impressing upon my heart that what truly brings a smile to Your face is not the sacrifice that I bring before You but a repentant and transformed heart of obedience. Please help me to stay obedient to You this year. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
