FEBRUARY 17 “I’LL GIVE WHAT THE LORD LEADS ME...”

 God makes sure to tell Moses, "make sure for the offering, they give a Ram without defect and of proper value".  We want to be quite spiritual about our giving, "I will give as the Lord leads" but it's interesting how The Lord so often leads us to give such skimpy amounts".  I can't tell you what "The Lord is leading you to give" in your deceitful, I mean, pure heart, but I can tell you what His written Word tells us to give and it is never just "whatever".  God, who knows people, makes it a point to warn Moses about what people will try to do in their offering, and that is, they will try to give something in the offering that will not cost them and God tells Moses, "don't accept it!".  It needs to be a Ram without defect and it ALSO needs to be the right value. Practically speaking, it would be a good idea to bring a defected Ram, after all, the Ram is just going to get sacrificed, why bring a healthy one? However, God wants it to cost, he wants our offering to cost us.  We are not free to give as we choose and then try to coax the Pastor or church to hold a rummage sale to try to collect money for the church needs.  I wonder what would happen if they had brought a defected Ram for the offering, and the defected Ram made its way past Moses, some how? Well, what would happen is their sins would not be covered because it was a "sin offering" and there was a specific amount designated for that. God would not honor his part of the deal since you did not honor your part. So then the same applies, that if we give every Sunday, as we feel lead, but never give "the first fruits, the tenth" of our income, what's the sense in giving? God promises to rebuke the devour if we give "The Tenth & offerings" not if we just give whatever we please. "I'll give what I want and what I think I can afford!", you say...Well, go ahead, but your giving is in vain, because it's not accomplishing  what giving is supposed to accomplish.  We give in obedience, yes, but we give also that the devour may be rebuked, we give so that God's covering would be upon us and that God would make all Grace abound towards us, that in all things at all times, we would have all that we need and there would be excess. However, if we give what we want, how we feel, then God does not honor his part of the deal and we might as well not give, because we are now just throwing away money. We will not get any blessing back from it.  If you are going to give then you might as well give the right amount, the designated amount, the Ram without defect, of proper value, otherwise, your giving is in vain and that's worse, than not giving at all!