Giving Our Best

Beginning in pre-school (Kindergarten), and for many years following, my mother said the same thing to me very morning as I left the house. “Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are, for Jesus sake today.” Only recently, did I discover that she was paraphrasing a quote from Theodore Roosevelt. I’m not even sure she knew that’s what she was doing, but it worked. I’ve lived with that daily motto for many years. In my teen-age years, I added the words of a then popular song, “Hear ye the Master’s call, ‘Give Me thy best!’ For, be it great or small, that is His test. Do then the best you can, not for reward, Not for the praise of men, but for the Lord.” Then came the awareness of a quote by John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.” Still later in life, I came across Numbers 18:29 that speaks of what we give, and instructs us to give “our best” offerings to God. All of this reminds me to ask myself (and you), what is the best I (you) have to give to God this week? And the follow-up challenge to the answer is, “Well then, give Him your best!”

Join me in praying for the following global concerns this week:
• Pray for a Church Planting team in Ukraine to find a place to rent for worship.
• Pray for a missionary in Greece as she seeks God’s guidance in writing and translating Bible studies to teach at women’s small groups.
• Pray for R and B as they move to Istanbul, Turkey after living in Kazakhstan for 15 years.
• Pray for missionaries around the globe as they explain the true meaning of Easter to those who will listen.