It’s easy to give everything when you have nothing to lose. It’s much harder when you fear losing what you have.

I am not talking about money, I am talking about ourselves. I am talking about love, life, liberty, who we are. And I am not talking about giving to others either.

I am talking about giving to God.

When you are dying or you have reached the bottom in whatever situation you are in, giving yourself to God, costs you very little and what you gain is enormous. When you have no one and you are so lonely that you can not stand it and someone tells you that God loves you, it is easy to reach out for him. When you are broke and you have nothing, it is easy to give it to God.

But what about all the other times in our lives?

When you are at the top of the totem pole and business is going good, it is not quite as easy is it? After all, you worked hard to reach this point in your life. When you have found happiness in a relationship or with your children, it is much harder to make time for God, especially if your time with your family is limited.

It’s not as if you aren’t giving your portion, or you are not going to church. You are doing your part, aren’t you? But are you?

Do you sometimes feel resentment when someone in your church needs some time or some help? Do you give more in the offering plate than just what is required? Do you leave your family to make time for your church?

Do you really have faith in God? Faith that He will provide what you need? Or do you hold back?

There is no greater reward than the love of the Father and the joy that we receive back from Him. What better example can we show than the example of ourselves. If people were to see the faith, joy, and love that we give and receive would not this be a greater testimony that simply stopping by their door and inviting them to come in?

I am not trying to make you feel guilty, I am trying to remind you of how you felt when you gave your all to God. Do you remember the joy and peace that you felt when you first accepted Him in your life? Do you want that relationship again?

What is it worth to you? Are you letting the world hold you back from God? What about when you pray? Do you feel as if your prayers are not reaching Him? Or are you really trying? Is your relationship with Him first and foremost in your life? Or is it an afterthought?

Hebrews 6:9-20 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

And so, after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise.

For men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for the confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by the two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.