Main Thought
God has given us more than we might realize, and more than we might be able to imagine. He gave because He loves us. What’s the appropriate response to God’s giving and love toward us? Three words that can describe an appropriate response to God are remember, return, and rejoice. We remember God’s faithfulness to us. Moments of reflection, gratitude, and thanksgiving can help us do that. We can also return to God what belongs to Him. Our resources ultimately came from God; why not return a portion to express our love for Him? Finally, we can rejoice in God’s overflowing love and provision. God has given us more than enough for us to experience His love and live for Him. That’s worth celebrating.
Main Passages
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. 5 “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. - Deuteronomy 26:1-6
7 Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9 And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. 11 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.
- Deuteronomy 26:7-11
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
- 2 Corinthians 8:1-2
Discussion Questions
What stands out to you in the Main Thought and Main Passages above?
Can you think of one gift from God that’s worth remembering and rejoicing over? If so, share with your group.
Deuteronomy 26:10 says (in part): “And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.” Why do you think God established a biblical pattern of worship in which we return some of the things He’s blessed us with to Him through giving? What might that look like in your life?