Many are the choices we make in life
But God chooses us and where we serve.
To honor God is not by sacrifice
It won’t cost silver or gold
It won’t cost what we think
It may cost what we want
Yet the sure cost of pleasing God
Is a whole hearted obedience.

Counting down to the end of the year yet? It’s almost here. As we ready to enter the last month of this year, I suppose some of us are taking stock already. You want to count your profits and losses in readiness for the New Year. That’s exactly what I am doing and surprising enough, rough and tough as this year has been, it has been one of my best. I have a full time job that leaves me well spent at the end of each day. I have a full time ministry which happens to be my primary assignment that fulfills God’s key purpose for my life. My profession is a means by which God funds my ministry and the other assignments He sends me on, and brings me in touch with people I may not meet any other way. I believe in saving but I learned we will attain God’s purpose not by saving but by trusting and walking closely with God our guide.

I strive to be accountable for every resources God brings my way. My earning didn’t change much this year but my spending did. With all the job losses and deflating economies, I realized I was able to accomplish more than I had imagined. Not because I hit some great deals or investments. In fact, if you must know, my savings were not exempt from global and national depreciation. My gains came from obeying God.

By opening my heart and purse when God asked, I spent more than I would have wanted to in famine. Nevertheless, by those simple acts of obedience, God saved me so much more than my job or the banks ever could. I looked down the years and realized that every cent spent in line with God’s direction though tender at the time changed lives whereas the same saved in the bank does not amount to much today. The profit of changed lives cannot be measured in monetary terms.

Before you jump to conclusion, please note that I was not blessed by the giving though that carries its own benefits. Obedience was the reason for the bounties. Some of us run business services with God: I give one, you give me a hundred fold. I don’t give to get, I give because God says to give. To me, it’s more about obedience to Him than it is about giving. When I want to give, I give what, when, and how I choose but when God says do this, I do just that. We really don’t need to do deals with God. His Words are forever settled that when you give, you will receive so that is not in question. What counts is the heart with which we do whatever He asks of us.

We can give away our all and lose it all if the motive is not right. Giving is an action but obedience is an attitude that precedes the action. We bow with our hearts first before our knees. If our hearts are not bowed, we can spend the rest of our days on our knees and it will mean nothing. It would have been my loss if I refused to obey. I would have spent those resources on other things. I may still have them saved but the value would not be the same.

By obedience, I honored God. I found pleasure in delighting God first from my submission and then by my giving. God saved for me what I couldn’t save for myself. God made ways for me that I would naturally not have discovered on my own. As this year rounds up, if there is one thing I want to take with me, one thing I would want you to take with you from all of my writings, it is 1 Samuel 15: 22: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. As year 2017 knocks on the door, this is my resolve: I choose the way of the Lord. May you choose His way over and over again irrespective of what comes and goes.

Glory!