Vital signs- Thursday, September 10th, 2020

God loved the world so much that he gave his only son for our salvation. Giving is in the very core of the heart of God for his people. God’s love is so intertwined with giving that it’s impossible to think of one without the other. Following Jesus will bring us to places of giving that we’ve never experienced before.

Jesus was well aware of the magnetic pull of money and he had a radical message for us: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6: 24). The quest for money is a powerful force within us and can keep us from following God fully.

How do we overcome such a strong pull? It comes about through giving it away, and like other aspects of this prayer, it is ultimately a heart issue. We are never told having money is itself wrong or evil. It’s love for money that is the problem. But everything we have actually belongs to him. We have been given a short term management of his kingdom assets, to invest in those things that honor his name. So nothing I have is really mine to just do with whatever I want.

One of the lessons for the children of Israel as they wandered the desert for forty years was that God was true to his promise to provide daily bread from heaven. Jesus asked us to pray for our daily bread. God is watching out for and taking care of his people. He wants us to experience his loving provision each day of our lives. This experience will help us joyfully give to him and others what he wants us to give—not just our money, but our lives.

Romans 12:1 states that we are to “present [ourselves] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual service of worship.” The image is of the Old Testament sacrificial system. We are to give our whole lives on the altar before God.