1. Honor God with Your Best

“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.” – Proverbs 3:9-10

Ah, this verse… it’s a favorite of the Prosperity gospel movement. “Give us money and God will bless you!” That’s really not the point of this passage. The big idea is do not squander that which God has trusted you with (see also the parable of the talents). It also speaks to the heart here. Do we honor Go with our money and our time? How about our efforts and our business ventures? What about our work and school? What about our leisure time? Does this mean you have to be all work and no play? Absolutely not! It simply means we need to be mindful of what we are doing and we ought to be willing to give of ourselves (not just our money) with a generous heart because that is our firstfruit offering.

2. Regarding Discipline

“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of His reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom He loves as a father the son in whom he delights.” – Proverbs 3:11-12

As a dad this passage has really started coming to life for me in recent years. My boys are getting older and as such the discipline for their misbehavior has had to get more intense. It’s absolutely no fun for anyone but it’s important. They are wonderful kids but sometimes their behavior is disrespectful, dishonoring their mother and I. Other times it’s disobedience to instructions, and other times they get too rough with each other and try to hurt their brothers, and as their father it’s my job to correct that behavior. Does that mean I don’t love them? Of course not. Like any dad I would do anything for those boys but I cannot love them without correcting bad habits and bad behaviors. Likewise God does the same for us. He is our Father who sees the awful things we do and loves us enough to tell us to stop.