Praising With Excellence

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Read Luke 21:1-4 and pray that God will speak to you through His Word today! Cheers- You have completed your first day in Costa Rica! Yesterday we learned about praising God as a lifestyle; today let’s take it further and examine how we can do that with excellence!

In Exodus 25 the Israelites are asked by God through Moses, to bring freewill offerings to build the tabernacle and He will dwell in it among them. The offerings include things such as gold, silver, bronze, richly colored cloth and fine linen, acacia wood, olive oil, spices, goat and cow skins, goat hair, and gems. Flip to Exodus 36:6-7. What did the people have to do?

Imagine- they gave so much that they had to be told, “Stop, we already have more than enough.” Beth Moore wrote in her study, A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place on this and she said, “Perhaps most of all, the Israelites gave because their hearts were stirred by a desire to participate in God’s work. Perhaps they were overwhelmed as they realized that gifts from their hearts would be woven into the fabric of the place God had chosen to manifest His presence….Just as surely as God was building His tabernacle through the Israelites thousands of years ago, Christ is building His kingdom through us today.” Ponder that: today we are given the chance to give and be part of the Kingdom Christ is building up!

Pastor Steve often gives a definition of excellence that sounds something like this: Excellence is doing the best you can with the resources you have.

Oddly enough, to define best, we can relate to high school. In most high school yearbooks, they do a superlatives page. Although many people have great hair and eyes or a lot of school spirit one person is picked who is said to have the best! Superlative literally means “of the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme”. It is the max of our “good enough”.

Think about posture. It is so hard to improve our posture unless we are thinking about it all the time. Before we know it, we are back to slouching. We don’t actually realize how slouched we are until we stretch our backs as high up as they can go. In the same way, we can’t realize our best until we stretch from just good.
So what is it God has given you, what are your resources in which you can lift up to God as an offering of praise? Because it is not ourselves from whom we get life, breath, or any gift! God has given you very special and unique gifts to lift up for His purpose. Just as the Israelites were asked to give out of many items (that which they possessed) and the widow gave all she had, we can give all that we have and possess. Read Luke 19:11-26. Jot down how that pertains to this devotional:
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God has given us what we need to glorify Him, and when we do our best with it, we can get more and give more! What a beautiful system!

Pray to God, and thank Him for life, and life through Him. Ask Him to be revealing to Him those gifts He has given to you that you can give. Ask Him to show you more ways in which you can turn good to best and worship with excellence! Pray that the hearts of those whom you come in contact with will be opened and seeds will be planted as the Holy Spirit leads you to bless.
Strive!

What are some gifts you know God has given you that you can give as a freewill offering?

What are some areas you know God has been pushing you to give your best, but you have been settling for good?

What would it look like to live a true life of excellent praise, giving your best in everything?