Tying to live my life as an offering often feels not enough. I can get caught up in thinking my life is supposed to look a certain way. I need to be volunteering at church. I need to be doing devotionals daily that last at least 30 minutes. I need to be praying more, worshiping more. Anything less than that is not enough.
A dear colleague sent me a devotional about the widow’s mite. That reminded me that God sees what we overlook. God sees the details. God sees our hearts. God sees intent and motivation. This scripture tells me what making my life as an offering should look like.
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12: 1-2 MSG).
God wants my everyday life, my ordinary life. I’m not asked to fit into a box with prescribed rules about what God will accept as an offering. God can and will take what feels small and insignificant and use it. God turns water into wine. The key in this scripture is keeping my focus on God. That is what I need to remember-focus on God.
How are you at giving your life as an offering? What parts do you struggle with? Share your experience here and breathe life and bring hope to others.