There is a story I’ve heard about a young boy. One bright and beautiful Sunday morning, the boy sat with his family in church. The preacher had just encouraged his flock to give their best to God through tithes and offerings. With a nod from the preacher, the ushers passed the offering plates while the organist played something soft. When the usher reached his row, the boy stepped into the aisle. “Could you put the plate lower, please?” the boy asked. The usher lowers the plate to the boy’s level. “Lower, please? Like on the ground?” the boy asked. The usher wasn’t sure, but he placed the offering plate on the ground to move things along. The boy stepped into the plate. “I don’t have anything to give God except myself.”
The boy’s attitude in the story is also to be our own. Consider this from Romans, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1, NASB95) Paraphrase – “I implore you, by God’s mercies, to present your entire self as a living and holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, which is genuine worship.”
The context of Paul’s urging is the sacrifices brought to the temple in Jerusalem. But this sacrifice goes way beyond presenting a lamb or dove to God. We often give God our leftovers of time, energy, and resources. We think ourselves spiritual for spending an hour or two at church once a week or every so often. Holy, because we put something in the offering. Sanctified because we open our Bibles at some point during the day. Pleasing to God because we sang a song or said a prayer.
But God didn’t give us His leftovers or provide out of His surplus; He gave his only Son. Our response to God, our worship, should be of the same kind. Not that we offer our son or daughter, but that we give ourselves. Not just a part, percentage, or a few of our leftovers but all we are; our physical bodies, our mind, our soul, our personality, our time, our traits, our talents, our abilities, our passions, our strength, our treasure, and our love.
The fear in giving our all to God is that we may lose who we are or whom we want to be. And we do lose something, but we also gain far more than we can imagine. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20, NASB95) What that will mean for your life experience is in God’s hands. Part of giving our all to God is willingly becoming like clay in the potter’s hands to be molded and shaped as the potter desires.
There was once another little boy in another church. On that Sunday morning a missionary who had served in the Congo (as it was called at that time) preached on Isaiah 6 – Whom shall I send? In his heart, the little boy answered “here I am, send me.” And yet he was too fearful of stepping out and making that answer known. But God honored that prayer anyway. I know because that little boy is me. You never know what the potter has in mind or what is just around the corner.
I don’t know what this all means for you today. My encouragement for you is to say “Yes” to God. Or like the first little boy – “Lower the offering plate God, I want to give you myself.”
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