[Discoveries] 02-22-07 What you have to offer

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of families who were the tribal 
leaders in charge of those who were counted, made offerings. -- Numbers 
7:2*/

The 89 verses of Numbers chapter 7 are, to the Western reader, tedious 
and repetitive. Each of the twelve leaders brought the same hardware, 
livestock and miscellany. Yet each is mentioned by name together with a 
list of everything he brought. The same list of offerings is repeated 
twelve times. I find myself thinking -- this should be a chart, a table 
or a spreadsheet. Throw in some photos and a Westerner could grab the 
essential meaning in about three seconds.

But it's preserved like this instead -- 89 verses.

Perhaps God is making a point. Maybe He's saying that everybody's 
contribution is recorded even yours and even mine. What we have to offer 
God may seem mundane and it may seem common, but not to God. He pauses, 
He ponders, He lingers over your offering and mine.

In this season of my life, to help make ends meet, every morning I get 
up at 4:30 and clean a bowling alley. Not what I envisioned when I 
graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 1978. This was troubling me, so 
I talked with the Lord about it. His response deeply touched me: "What 
you do might not be valued highly in man's sight, but I see everything 
you do, and I receive it as an offering of love to me. I value it, and 
that's what matters."

That's what matters.

Be encouraged!
Dwight


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