Giving Our Best to God

As I sat weeping with the Lord, I heard a loving and gentle whisper: “I love you more than any man” and from the brokenness of a prodigal daughter brought back to the heart of the Father came my response, “Lord, I love you with all that I am and have – you are my first love”.

We often struggle with giving the best of our lives to God: the best time of our day, the best years of our lives and the best of our resources. As single young adults we can wrestle with what it means to live a life of costly worship in fellowship with a Holy God. We contend within ourselves on how much of our expectations, emotions, dreams, longings and desires we can pour out before God and how much of them we can invest in relationships or keep on hold for future relationships. We try to measure and calculate how much of the best of ourselves we can hold back and still somehow try to walk in holiness, pleasing the Lord. We can then grow weary and tired questioning the hand of God upon our lives and our standing with God.

As we pursue a holy life in fully submitting to the Lord we are reminded that giving the best of ourselves, in fact all of ourselves, to the Lord is a joyful privilege so that we can remain in fellowship with the Lord. In our sincere worship we can offer as a pleasing sacrifice the best of our love, devotion, commitment, energy and time - all of what we have - in abiding in the presence of the One who fully satisfies us.

As we commit to giving our best to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will give us the grace to lay aside and give up all that would get in the way of us giving our all to the Lord. The costly sacrifice the Lord asks of us is to turn away from any distraction or compromise that prevents us putting him above all else. Jesus is our first love. As we spend time prayerfully reading, studying and meditating on God’s Word, and in personal prayer with him, we are called further and further into his presence and are transformed to be more like Jesus.

Dear Father, strengthen me to fully submit the best of myself in holy worship to you. Amen.

Throughout this day: Make some time to meditate on the fact that Jesus is the One who fully satisfies you, and pray about any distraction or compromise he may be asking you to sacrifice for him.