Proverb 3:9

“Honor the Lord with your possessions, 
And with the firstfruits of all your increase;”

Our possessions are something we earn. Our increase is our income, something for which we work. One of the words used to describe “increase” in the Hebrew is “produce” which indicates not just work, but hard work. Stirs up images of one toiling under the hot sun, charring their hands with dirt and pricking them with thorns as they tend the very earth that nourishes their livelihood. Sweating, aching back, early mornings and late nights and everything that goes with it. 

These days we still work hard, but there’s more of a toil on our mind than on our body. Nonetheless, we still work hard for the wage we earn; all the effort and energy we expend reaching out for a job, preparing for it and then doing it—It depletes our energies. I have had jobs where I would be so drained of my energies, I didn’t feel that I had any left to get me in to work the next day. Anxiety spilled over in the form of tears the night before I had to return to work after a refreshing weekend away from the office. 

The point is, we put a lot of ourselves into our jobs, better known as our livelihood, so that we may have a life outside of the cubicle. Life twofold: the sustenance of our physical beings and activity in the social sphere. 

We delight in receiving our payment and consider all the ways we will spend when payday approaches. The hopes of what we want to do with the monies and then the realities of where we must delve it out: rent, food, gas, utilities, college funds, IRAs, medical premiums, car payments, credit card debt…

And those things we hoped to spend our wages on, diminish in the overwhelming face of necessity. We develop all kinds of anxieties as uncertainty sits in. Will it be enough? We cave to the leech’s desire for more so that we may meet those social expectations and often times prioritize them over the necessities. All because of a focus on oneself.

Our firstfruit, the chief portion of our wages is to be used to honor our Lord. To lavish him with gratitude-not only for the possessions he’s entrusted to us–but for our every blessing. And then offering our firstfruit back to him. Better known, unfortunately, as an invitation to doubt. Because if I set aside my firstfruits, my chief earnings for Him, how then will I meet my basic financial needs (and then all of a sudden, our necessities become our utmost importance again)? And giving back becomes something we dread.

But that should not be! Consider all the ways you can use those firstfruits to give back to him! It’s not merely this rote activity to add to the chaotic chore that we know as finances. It is an exciting opportunity to be creative and adventurous with the earnings he has allotted to us. Think of all the ways it could be a blessing to a person, a cause, an organization, a need; a fulfilled hope, an answered prayer, a long awaited repair, calking to an emotional wound, a future, a paid debt, forgiveness. How can it be a display of love? For that is what we are called to do, yes even with our hard-earned money.

When we do, we can delight in our giving. And our Father will delight in our willingness to give. And those we give to will delight in the gift of our giving. 

That, my friends, is what our firstfruits are for. Not to be fret over. Not to be hoarded or selfishly spent for social gain. But for the the greater Kingdom. 

And we can douse the one who gave to us in liberal gratitude for the ability to give, for the delight we gain and for the continued earnings we receive.