From His Heart Devotional 24 June 2021 by Pastor Jeff Schreve, Thursday Message
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Topic: Are You Giving Your Best?
Anyone who knows me knows I love Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion. I think one of the reasons I love the Rocky character so much is because he was a fighter with limited ability but tons of heart. He fought with all that he had, and then some.
When the unheralded Rocky Balboa first fought Apollo Creed, no one took the fight seriously. It was supposed to be a cake walk for Apollo, the skilled, polished, undisputed champion of the world. But the cake walk turned into a 15-round battle for survival that Apollo barely won by a split decision. As a result of the fight, both men ended up in the same hospital, battered and bruised. In one special hospital scene, Rocky wheels himself into Apollo’s room and asks him this penetrating question, “Apollo, did you give me your best?” Going the distance with the champ only meant something to Rocky if he knew Apollo had truly given his best.
GOD’S BEEF WITH HIS PEOPLE
In the book of Malachi, God was very displeased with His people. Do you know why? It was because they were not giving their best. They were coming before the Lord with their scraps and the leftovers of their lives. They were offering mangy, crippled, flee-infested lambs as offerings and keeping the good lambs for themselves. They were giving far, far less than their best. Hear what God thinks of less than your best, leftover worship:
“When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should He show you any favor at all?” asks the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. —Malachi 1:8-9, NLT
