"Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine" (Proverbs 3:9-10).One of the best ways to show our gratitude to the Lord for His provision is to honor Him with the wealth with which He blesses us. Those who lived in Israel at the time this proverb was penned knew that the right thing to do at harvest time was to give a portion of the crops to the Lord... first thing. Giving leftovers to God was not very honoring to Him. Giving "firstfruits" to the Lord displayed a measure of faith and appreciation. Grabbing and hoarding displayed fear and selfishness.
The general principle revealed in today's passage is that the Lord is faithful to provide for His children. You and I can't out give God. As we give to the Lord, out of appreciation, He blesses us with abundance. This generalization does not lock God into a formula. He sovereignly chooses to give or withhold His blessing. The point of this proverb is to show that we are to honor God by giving faithfully and generously out of deep appreciation for His provision.
The more God blesses our giving, the more opportunity we will have to give. Barns full of grain and vats full of wine affords us a greater ability to bless others. This cycle of giving and blessing honors God in a way few of us truly understand.
Does your giving come from a heart full of gratitude to the Lord or do you feel yourself grabbing and hoarding? Only one of those is truly honoring to God.
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