Give your Best

There is a tremendous and painful story in the first chapter of Malachi that can help us establish a standard for living. In these few verses, the prophet Malachi challenges the priests regarding a practice they had slipped into (Malachi 1:6 & 7) "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. "But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?' 7 "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty."

The back story to this verse is to offer atonement for your sin. The Priests were to sacrifice a lamb to God at the altar. It wasn’t supposed to be any old animal; it was supposed to be your very best animal – the one that is most perfect, most prized, and most valuable to you. Giving your best to God was a powerful symbol of your desire to please and honor him. But standards had slipped, and the priests were becoming lax. They had started sacrificing the lambs that had some disability or infirmity. The kind wasn’t worth much and would only be thrown away anyway. God is making a point through Malachi that He deserves our very best. In our offerings to God in this New Year, we must give nothing less than our best. We must be excellent in the worship we offer and the life we live before God. Excellence inspires people and honors God. I pray that your offerings to him this year will not be some second-rate leftovers (spare time, excess energy, leftover resources, etc.) but that you will give God your very best. 

The days of sacrificing animals are gone, but giving God our best will never be over.