SeedOffering

David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, 

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.

 ¹⁴ “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.¹⁵ We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. ¹⁶ Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.¹⁷ I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. ¹⁸ Lord, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.” (1Chronicles 29:10–1)

David praises God in front of the whole assembly for providing for the temple through His own provision for His people. David humbly and honorably gives praise to God in recognition of the fact that all that was given to the temple, from the beginning, was never to be held by man. He recognizes that all things both begin and end with God.

Give yourself permission to ask God for the wants and longings in the depths of your soul. They are not hidden from Him. We experience more freedom when we give ourselves permission to want and then allow God Himself to place His own desires in our hearts. Can you surrender all He’s given to you back over to Him—for it has always been His? Your relationships, your children and parents, your job, your health, and your wealth can be surrendered to the hands of our trustworthy God. Rest in knowing that God has asked you to steward His gifts and blessings while not controlling or manipulating them for selfish gain. Pray for wisdom to steward well His Spirit in you, His love through you, and His grace for you. Ask Him for the courage to not cling to earthly treasures, but to lose them for heavenly gain.

Prayer Focus: Worship Leadership Team

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“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)

Paul says something similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 10:8. Jesus taught that servanthood and generosity would mark the lives of His followers. His followers would be known for their acts of love, especially toward their enemies.

Interestingly, the phrase, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” does not appear in the Gospels. While not stated explicitly, this truth is implicitly portrayed on every page. It may be that Paul is summarizing Jesus’s statements or that this truth was simply recounted by others.

Our biggest challenge is not giving. The greater challenge for many of us is believing and receiving. For many of us, it is actually easier to give than to receive. Truthfully, we cannot give what we have not first received. The blessing in giving comes from sharing that which we first received.

Ask God for the ability to receive, and then ask Him to experience the blessing of giving from the overflow of that which He has given to you.

Prayer Focus: Peru

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For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:6–7)

The same power that spoke light into the new creation speaks light and life into the hearts of each new creation in Christ. In the creation of the physical cosmos, God’s own voice speaks. Today, God continues to speak in a variety of ways, including His own voice, but He primarily speaks through His Word. Here, God is speaking through a person, Paul, a human agent in His re-creation plan.

Paul writes about the “treasure” that every believer possesses; it is “the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” Our bodies are only the vessel.

“A vessel’s worth comes from what it holds, not from what it is” (Kraftchick). Within every believer is the very magnificence of the transforming power of the Gospel. Our bodies may be tired and weary, but what they hold is a treasure that far surpasses anything in the material world.

What’s missing in our day is not the knowledge of God but the power of God. Ask God to reveal His death-defying resurrection power in you and through you.

Prayer Focus: Saving Susan

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Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ²³ Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. (Deuteronomy 14:22–23)

The tithe is a God-instituted, God-directed way of stewarding all that God has provided. The Israelites recognized that all they owned had been given by God Himself. The Israelites learned to recognize that they were not owners or possessors of their material blessings; rather, they were stewards of what God had provided. The tithe, “a tenth,” was one way God taught His people to steward His blessings. The presentation of the tithe was also a process of deepening trust and dependency on God and revering or “standing in awe” of Him always.

Ask God for increased faith to trust Him with all you have been given and to courageously steward His resources for His glory and your good. Entrust Him with a tithe of all He has provided.

Prayer Focus: Youth Small Group Sowers

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