What? Give Up to Give?

Matthew 10:42
And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”

Ezra 9:5
At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord my God.

Have you ever wondered what you could give up in your life so that you could spend more time on something really important in your life?  For me about three years ago, I gave up television as it was controlling my life and how much time I had to do things.  Now, tonight at youth group the speaker spoke about giving up one day of video games to honor God.  By giving up one day of something we enjoy doing to give more time to God we are able to see better how God actually works in our lives.

The speaker encouraged the students to find something to honor God in the time not spent on playing video games.  Well, of course I plan to take this challenge as well.  For me it’s not video games but I certainly can give up on day of playing any Facebook games to open up some extra time to devote to God time.  I am not at all as together as I may appear sometimes.  I lack in areas of my life concerning God.  I need to spend more time reading the Bible and getting into a habit of a daily devotion.  I am really good at starting things, not so good at seeing them out to completion.  Yup, not a perfect person here, I am human after all.

After discussing some options on what to give up, my daughter and I have decided that since we do not play video games per say, we don’t watch tv and we really do not have anything in our lives that take up too much of our time, we have chosen to pick one day a week to volunteer somewhere.  This fits into my theme of giving hope this year.  Even if it is one thing a couple of hours a week to help out somewhere in the community, we will be making a difference.  I had already been thinking of doing something like this and this is a wonderful opportunity to do so.

Sacrifice. The ultimate gift can be given to anyone.  God gave us His son, why cannot we not find time to fit Him into our lives?  How rewarding it can be to just give.  Sometimes it can be as simple as a card or a call or even a simple text message.  Any time you make someone smile, it is giving something of you to give hope to another fellow human being.  A simple “Hi” as you walk out of a gas station can make a difference in someones day.  Think about all the little things we can do daily to give hope.  Yes it will take effort and sometimes it mean stepping out of our comfort zones.

What will you give today? Can you give up something one day a week to develop a closer relationship with your Creator?  So often we do not take enough time to listen to God in the quiet moments of life and simply that’s because we do not create any quiet moments to hear from God. This is a time in our lives when we need hope and in order to receive we must be willing to give a little of ourselves.  A change in ones life has to come from a mind set.  A mind set with goals in mind.  A goal of giving hope to others will surely set us in the right direction for the new year.