Laurie Hopkins

The Lord requires our first fruits – unblemished and from a willing heart.
We are not to give God our left overs. 
We are not to give God that which we wouldn’t give anyone else. 
Our offering is not to be given grudgingly. 
When we think of our offering we are not just talking about monetary things once a week in Church on Sunday. 
Romans talks about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice.
 That is an intentional, everyday offering unto the Lord. 
That involves our time, our priorities, our hands and our feet outstretched to those around us, our thoughts, our finances, and our relationships. T
his every day, intentional offering follows the same conditions; unblemished and willingly. 
How are you offering your life up to God? 
Are you giving of your time? 
Is His work your priority? 
Are you allowing Him to use your hands and feet to reach those around you? 
Does He have rule over your thought life? 
What about those finances? 
Does the love in your relationships flow from His love in and through you? 
Are you giving of yourself, your possessions and your time with a willing heart? 
Are you giving God the best of you, not the leftovers that you would never present to a boss on a job or to the people you love? 

It is time that we seriously consider our offerings to the Lord. 
Both the quality and the priority attached to them. 
For the Lord asks,
“Should I accept this from your hand?”

The Lord requires our first fruits – unblemished and from a willing heart.
We are not to give God our left overs. 
We are not to give God that which we wouldn’t give anyone else. 
Our offering is not to be given grudgingly. 
When we think of our offering we are not just talking about monetary things once a week in Church on Sunday. 
Romans talks about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice.
 That is an intentional, everyday offering unto the Lord. 
That involves our time, our priorities, our hands and our feet outstretched to those around us, our thoughts, our finances, and our relationships. T
his every day, intentional offering follows the same conditions; unblemished and willingly. 
How are you offering your life up to God? 
Are you giving of your time? 
Is His work your priority? 
Are you allowing Him to use your hands and feet to reach those around you? 
Does He have rule over your thought life? 
What about those finances? 
Does the love in your relationships flow from His love in and through you? 
Are you giving of yourself, your possessions and your time with a willing heart? 
Are you giving God the best of you, not the leftovers that you would never present to a boss on a job or to the people you love? 

It is time that we seriously consider our offerings to the Lord. 
Both the quality and the priority attached to them. 
For the Lord asks,
“Should I accept this from your hand?”

I love the visual here:  the enemy only has an arm of flesh on their side, but we have the Lord our God. 
The Lord is the one that helps us to fight our battles. 
We do not fight our battles on our own. 
The Lord goes ahead and prepares the way. 
He sees the beginning from the end and knows the path we must take to become that which He has called us to.
So, we are called to be strong and courageous.
We are not to be dismayed before the “kings of Assyria” we encounter in our lives –whether they represent physical concerns, financial concerns, emotional concerns or relational concerns. 
Those “kings” in our life only operate out of an arm of flesh. 
We operate in the spiritual realm, with the Hand of the Lord our God fighting for us and going ahead to prepare the way. 
Be encouraged today.