When I was very young, and my family was having devotion time one evening, I was asked, “Where would you like for us to read from in the Bible?” I suggested, “Let’s hear a story from Deuteronomy!” My suggestion was not met with enthusiasm from the other family members, so another passage was selected that time. But that made me curious to know what WAS in Deuteronomy. Surely there was a Bible story that I had not heard in that book…

I have journeyed through the Bible many times over the years, and I have found even Deuteronomy’s discourses to be a delight to read. Today, I read in Deuteronomy 26 about two things that the LORD finds very important and asks us to honor Him with. Many of His promises and blessings are connected to these two things.

The first principle of blessing that God asks of us is to honor Him with our first fruits.

“You shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide…Then you shall set it before the Lord you God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord you God has given to you and your house…” (Deuteronomy 26:2, 10-11)

What are our first fruits? We are not all farmers who have produce of the land to present to God. So, what can we bring to be a blessing to Him? God wants our best, not our leftovers. We can honor the Lord with our time, money and talents. He wants the first of our time—our devotion and prayers to Him early in the day when we are fresh and at our best, not when we have dragged ourselves home from a hectic day of work and are exhausted. He wants the first of our financial gifts, not the few paltry dollars that are left in our pocket at the end of the week. He wants the first of our talents, the best of our skills that can be offered in service to Him.

The second principle of blessing that Deuteronomy 26 commands of us is our tithes and offerings.

“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase…and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say… ‘I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that You have commanded me…’” (Deuteronomy 26:12, 14)

The Lord wants our tithes, the first ten percent of all we receive as gross income–before taxes and Social Security and insurance, etc. is taken out! And He desires that we are generous to a fault, giving not only to help our local congregation, but also to help those in need around us—the strangers, the orphans and widows—anyone in our community who is in need. There is a saying, “You can’t outgive God.” This is true. The more we give, the more blessings He pours into our lives. He promises this regarding your tithes in Malachi 3:10,

“’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’”

I challenge you to put into practice these two great principles of blessing as see what the Lord will do for you as you are obedient to His will. You may be quite surprised at how much the Lord honors your offerings to Him.