Firstfruit Offerings
Ezekiel 44:30 “The best of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.”
Firstfruit offering is something that was common in the Old Testament. The Israelites offered up their firstfruits of everything to the priests. This is how the priests (and their families) were taken care of and considered their primary income. In turn, the priests would perform their priestly duties, including praying a blessing over the person’s home, and God would bless that home.
Today, as believers, we offer our financial tithe (hopefully at least 10%) to our home church. We might also provide sacrificial giving to other ministries and charities, or where God prompts us to give. But it this all there is to firstfruits?
With Jesus Christ as our hight priest, today, we can pray, “Lord, we are all in. We want you to have all of us. We place you first above all. Above bad habits, above addictions, above routines, above all that is good in our life; above all. Period.”
When we fully realize all that Jesus did for us on the cross, it is hard not to fall to our knees in gratitude and thanksgiving. Yet, because we fully do not understand, and/or have a brain that likes to follow sparkly things 🙂 , daily distractions continue to fight for our attention and pull us away from Jesus and His position in our lives.
How do we go through our day, keeping God first in our lives? We can verbally acknowledge that He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, in all that we say and do as we go about our day. We can offer up little prayers, seeking God’s guidance in even the most mundane of tasks. We can sing songs of Worship and praise while folding the laundry, offering our hearts to the One who made us.
God has amazing, great things in store for each of us. The only way we can recognize what these things are is if we are close to Him. To be close to God, we need to know Him through prayer, studying the Holy Scriptures, and creating stillness in our souls, so we can hear what the Holy Spirit is telling us.
Here is a song to lift up in prayer today: Clean Hands by Chris Tomlin
ETA: I love when this happens! After posting to the blog, I came across this on Facebook:
What Does It Mean To Put God First?
My favorite thing from this article: God is not a back-up plan but the Planner of life itself.
Amen to that!