Giving to God out of love – Prayer for September 9. Praise the Lord everybody, for He alone is worthy!
Bible Verse for Today
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
If you’ve seen the movie “The Color Purple” you may remember this one scene where Shug Avery (a woman burdened down with all kinds of lust and sin) is walking down the road when her estranged father comes riding along. He is a man of God, he sees her, speeds up, and passes her without saying a word. As he passes she yells out “daddy I’m married now!” as if that will make up for all her past history of fornication and sin.
Shugg Avery in this scene is like a lot of Christians, think of her father as God, Abba, Father, Sugg is estranged from her father just like man is, going our own way, doing our own thing, living it up. On one hand, we want to please God and on the other, we don’t want to give up our sins, so what do we do? We throw God a bone.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven
Sugg’s “bone” was she got married, “I’m married now!” she screamed, thinking that would make a difference as she continued to drink, party, and sing at juke joints and speak Easies all over the south. Some of us do the same.
We might start going to church just to get God off our backs as we continue to live in all kinds of sin. We continue in sin thinking everything is going to be alright. But one day as we walk down this road we will see our Father.
And when He turns His back on us we will say just like Sugg “Daddy I’m married now!” thinking that just because we did a little something for God that He will stop and recognize us as righteous children.
God is not interested in our little gestures. It’s like that one-dollar tip we put on the plate on Sundays when we know we can do better. Jesus is interested in relationships, not religious gestures. He wants our love, our obedience, our lives. We can’t just throw God a bone and continue to live in sin, lying, stealing, drinking, drugging, fornicating, and the rest. God wants our all! not just our fingers.
Stop shouting “I’m married now!” as God passes by, give him your all, body, soul, and spirit. You need to start giving to God out of love. God bless you all.
Giving to God out of Love Prayer for Today
Father God, forgive us for all the “bones” we have thrown your way, thinking that was all we needed to do to appease you. Lord forgive our arrogance. Father help us to humble ourselves and live in obedient submission to your will. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
