Give Your Best

DateLine (7/6/05 - Ponce, Puerto Rico)

A pastor of a very large Baptist church in Houston Texas has a new book out entitled Your Best Life Now. Amazon.com has the following to say about the book; “Houston televangelist Joel Osteen is well qualified to write this book, having used the seven principles he shares to achieve his own "rags-to-riches" story. At the heart of Osteen’s message is that achieving a successful, prosperous life of fulfillment can only occur when we stop worrying.” Is this enticing statement a marketing ploy to get you to buy the book and thus adding another chapter to Joel Osteen’s own rag-to-riches story or is this a clever way to attract the naturally curious mind to read the book and receive an introduction to an awesome God. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

Let me share something about prosperous living from my own experience. This is the year when Harriett and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary. We have had an incredibly rich life and I’m convinced it’s because early on God opened doors for us to service in the church and we accepted. The dimensions of the richness are expressed as deep friendships, intensely fulfilling responsibilities, and eye-witnesses to the amazing grace and love of our Savior as He worked in our lives and in the lives of those around us. These mutual experiences have provided a solid foundation to our own marriage relationship.

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:9; “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” If I synthesize our experience down to the essentials here’s what I see. Wealth of all forms is from God. He trusts us with as much of that wealth as He sees fit and determines the level of trust by observing if we are willing to give Him back the best portion of the wealth. Our giving to him the best portion is a faith statement on our part that He will continue to give us as much as we need for the long haul. And so the cycle of life repeats and I’m convinced that in each cycle all the more rewarding.

It’s natural for us to want something form God. It’s supernatural for us to understand that in giving something to God we can expect so much more in return. I learned an old hymn when I was a child. It went like this, “Give of your best to the Master, give of the strength of your youth. Clad in salvation’s full armor, join in the battle for truth.” Your prosperous life is waiting for you – go for it!