I wonder how many of us can say that we give God our best 100% of the time?

The answer of course is none of us! There has never been and never will be a human who has given their best to the Lord 100% of the time. We are human and we fail—often miserably. That doesn’t mean that we stop striving to give our best though.

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Stop and really think about this past week. How many times did you give your absolute best to Christ? How many times did you give him your “leftovers”?

To put it in perspective, If someone of “importance” announced that they were going to come to your house, what would you do? You would prepare your best food, clean every nook and cranny of your house, and put on your very best clothing. That is what we do to show respect and honor to those in authority. When we go to a courtroom, we dress up and wear clothing that shows that we have a healthy respect for the judge who is presiding over that courtroom. If we were to be invited to The White House, we would no doubt go all out making sure we presented ourselves with the respect due such a prestigious place. Maybe you live in another country. What if you were invited to Buckingham Palace or some other place of prestige and wealth? Wouldn’t you make sure you did your best to convey your respect?

We, of course, would answer yes to all of these questions. We were raised with respect toward those in authority, and we know that it is important to carry ourselves in a manner that reflects that.

Ah, but let me ask you this now. When was the last time you went “all out” in serving Christ?

In the days of the prophet Malachi, God said that the priests despised His name. They were offering sacrifices that were not acceptable. The lambs given for sacrifices were supposed to be without spot or blemish, but these were not the type of lambs being sacrificed. They were sacrificing lambs that were diseased and sick.

In the book of Malachi, God presents an interesting question to them:

“And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.”

~Malachi 1:8

The obvious implied answer to the last question in that verse is no! Of course their governor would not have been pleased with it. I am sure that they would’ve never considered giving those blemished lambs to someone of such prestige. Yet they somehow found them acceptable to be offered to God.

How often you and I do the exact same thing! Of course we do not offer sacrifices anymore, because The Perfect Lamb has paid for our redemption. Old Testament sacrifices are no longer needed, but sometimes we have the same mindset that these priests did.

“Sure, Lord, I’ll serve you as soon as I have time. You can’t expect me to give you all of my time and talents! After all, I give you all the spare time I have. That counts for something doesn’t it?”

Sound familiar? What about: “Lord, you can have my full attention after I accomplish my other responsibilities. I’ll pause and listen to you as soon as life calms down a little.”

Really think about it. You wouldn’t serve the President leftovers for dinner, would you? Of course not! Yet we are ok with serving God the leftovers of our lives.

Ouch. That hurts. We have all been guilty at one time or another of giving God the leftovers.

We find excuses as to why we can’t give him our best, but that’s just it—they are excuses.

“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?”

~Malachi 1:1a

God is our Father and Master. He is The KING. Why are we giving him the leftovers of our lives that we wouldn’t think of giving someone else?

God deserves the best of our lives, our talent, our time. He deserves to be given the best of all we have. The question is, Will we give him our best?

A. M. Watson

Hebrews 13:8