Serving Leftovers to the King

Note to Self: Before going to bed, always double-check alarm clock.

I'm feeling rather irritated with myself today. I'm embarrassed to admit that I missed church this morning. It certainly wasn't on purpose, but I still missed church. While I had set my alarm clock for the correct time, apparently I failed to turn it on.

This makes me feel mad and a little guilty, but mostly just disappointed. I was thoroughly looking forward to trying out a new church this morning, and I missed the opportunity. I really wanted to be in church and enjoy the music, the preaching, and the Christian fellowship.

I am struggling to find a church here that fits me well. I've visited three different churches now, and none of them seem quite right. I think I'm being a bit critical, but it's difficult to find something that can compare to my home church. I think that's what I want. Something that makes me feel like I'm at home at Brown Street.

Today, I was going to try a church in a neighboring town. I've met some of the members of this church through Shepherds and also through a Bible study I attended last week. Here's why I was looking forward to trying that church this morning:

Last Tuesday, I was invited to a Bible study for a college age group. I so enjoyed it! It was exactly what I needed. The group was such an encouragement to me. It consisted of about 25 young people. It was very much discussion-oriented, but everyone who shared their thoughts seemed to be really grounded in their knowledge of the Scriptures.

The study consisted of time spent in the Word, prayer time in small groups, and time spent in praise and worship to God. I was deeply impressed. Everyone felt so at ease with one another, and many people were willing to share their thoughts or pray aloud. It was what I envision for our college age group back at home.

The passage the study focused on was Malachi 1. This was like a slap in the face to me because our college group back home is finishing up some chapters in the book Crazy Love that coincide perfectly with this passage.

Side note: If you've never read Crazy Love by Francis Chan, go out and get it right now! This book is so thought-provoking, humbling, convicting, encouraging, life-altering. Read it now! Seriously, I'm not even joking.

Back to the previous topic, Malachi 1 is all about Israel offering God the bare minimum and being totally okay with it. They're not giving their best, and God is fed up with it. The scary thing is that Israel does not even recognize this offense. They are completely unconcerned with giving God their very best.

We look at this and think, "What is their problem? Can't they see that what they are doing is sin?" But then it hits you that we do exactly the same thing. We may not be sacrificing blind and lame animals, but we are shirking God of the time, money, devotion, and love He deserves from us. We read a quick chapter in the Bible, so we won't feel guilty about not doing our devotions. We spit out a super-fast prayer before meals because "we're supposed to." We go to church because that's what God wants, right?

Yes, God does want us to read our Bible and pray and go to church, but not if we're only doing it to fulfill a requirement. He wants us to WANT to do those things. Do them out of love, not duty. And He wants us to give the very best we can, not just the bare minimum.

When our Bible study group broke up into small groups for prayer, each person was very honest and specific about one area in their life where they knew they were not giving God their best. It was humbling and encouraging all at the same time. We took turns praying for one another and asking God to help us improve in this area during the next week.

I really appreciated this time and this group of people. I look forward to going again this Tuesday. Please pray for me as I work on improving my prayer life. This is the area I chose to focus on. And think about yourself, where are you giving less than your best? How can you give more to God?