My Utmost for His Highest

Adam and I are trying for the first time this year to read through the Bible in a year. Last night we started in Leviticus. This is probably the part where most people give up, because Leviticus can be pretty dull and hard to get through. Oddly enough, I really felt God speaking to me through it last night. (I don't know why I said "oddly enough" - God can use any tool He wants to do whatever He wants!)


Anyway, the first few chapters of Leviticus pertain to the proper way to perform animal sacrifice for the atonement of sins. I'm glad we don't have to do this anymore under the New Covenant, because it sounds really gross! Burning fat, washing out innards, sprinkling blood... Yuck. But that's really not the point.


The point is that in several of the verses we read last night, God made sure to point out that the sacrifices that He demanded were to be "without defect." I've heard it a million times before, but for some reason last night (perhaps because it was repeated so often) it stuck out to me.


You and I are not responsible for making animal sacrifices to atone for our sins anymore, because Jesus Christ came and paid the full price for us. He was the ultimate sacrifice and so we need make no more. But as Christians, we are responsible for serving God, for taking the time to pray, and for loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 


Yet so often, don't we find that we reserve the right to push God to the back burner? It's kind of like whatever we do for Him we view as "extra." Let's get our own life dealt with first, and then if we have time on top of that, we can serve. 


Boy, do we have our priorities mixed up!


God demands that the absolute best be reserved for Him. Not only that, but if we look back to Exodus, we see that God demands that the first be given to Him as well (Ex 22:29, Ex 34:19). Able offered up to God the "firstlings of his flock" in Genesis 4. The Israelites were commanded each year at the festival of First Fruits to offer up to God the first sheaves of the harvest (Lev 23:9-15). Imagine the trust it took for the Israelites to see the beginnings of their harvest after a long winter of rationing out what was saved, to not know how much more was coming, and to sacrifice it away!


And what about us? Did you know that one of the verses we all know and love so well - "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me" (Prov 8:17) - has a deeper meaning? If you look up that verse in the Amplified or King James versions of the Bible, there is another word stuck in there; it is the word "early." 


We are commanded to seek Him early! We are to give God the first fruits of our day - the very best part, and not delay in doing it.


Does that convict your heart? It does mine. I know there are many times when I don't even remember God in my life until I have been up and grumpy for a few hours. 


If you are not a morning person, don't despair. I don't believe that God is going to penalize us if we don't have our quiet times in the morning - but the point remains that we need to reserve a spot in our day for Him as our number one priority. The danger in saying "I'll do it later" is that time tends to run away with us, and before we know it, we've gone our whole day without honoring or seeking the Lord. 


I'll say just one more thing on this topic before signing off. Last night while reading through those passages in Leviticus with my husband, I realized for the first time why it is so important to give God the first and best of ourselves each day. It is because God did the same for us. He sacrificed His firstborn Son, His only Son, and His perfect Son for us. He held nothing back in His love for us. Why should we hold back in ours for Him?