{"id":20041,"date":"2017-07-12T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/?p=20041"},"modified":"2023-04-26T11:34:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T15:34:07","slug":"giving-god-your-best-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/giving-god-your-best-not.htm","title":{"rendered":"Giving God Your Best Isn’t …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Give<\/p>\n

Before looking at what it means to give God our best, we would do well to first consider what it does not mean. We want to make sure we’re coming at this biblically, not from a worldly, humanistic perspective.<\/p>\n

What It Does Not Mean to Give God Your Best<\/h2>\n

1) Doing or giving our best is not to gain merit with God, for salvation or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Scripture makes it clear that all our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). We all fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We are saved by grace through faith, not by our good works (Eph. 2:8-9). We live our lives in Him just as we received Him — by grace through faith (Col. 2:6).<\/p>\n

2) Doing or giving our best is not about getting applause for a job well done.<\/p>\n

Our objective should be to honor God, to in every way “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10). We should do that whether or not we receive recognition. — “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters …” (Col. 3:23)<\/p>\n

3) Doing or giving our best is not about self-effort.<\/p>\n

Jesus said, “apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). No matter how excellent we perform on our own, apart from His power at work in us, we will come short. As a branch draws its sustenance from the vine, so we must abide in Christ to bear eternal fruit. Remember verses like Philippians 4:13. — “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” We must “strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works” in us (Col. 1:29). We are at our best when we put all of who we are into all of who He is and watch Him work through us.<\/p>\n

We’ve considered what giving God our best does not mean. In the next post we’ll look at what it does mean.<\/p>\n

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Before looking at what it means to give God our best, we would do well to first consider what it does not mean. We want to make sure we’re coming at this biblically, not from a worldly, humanistic perspective. . . . Continue reading Giving God Your Best Isn’t …<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc-walk-with-god"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\t