Our ladies' Bible study is digging in deeply into the book of Malachi this spring semester. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, the final word from one of God's prophets until the Messiah would appear, some 400 years later. Malachi is grouped with the "minor prophets", not because his message is unimportant, but because his message is relatively short compared to prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. It may be short, but it's strong.
This week, we are tackling Malachi 1:6-14, a passage in which God confronts the stingy, tightwad giving habits of his people. To put the story in modern-day terms, God is telling his people that they have plenty of money to spend on themselves and their own entertainment (flat screen TVs,computer tablets, the biggest package available from DirecTV...), but when it comes to giving to God's causes, they go to the Goodwill Thrift Store and find the tackiest, filthiest thing on the shelves and bring it to church to help decorate the foyer. Their stinginess shows. And it's just plain mean.
Our Bible study author, Lisa Harper, is a colorful storyteller, who is gifted by God to make the difficult passages of the Bible seem as clear and simple as the pile of dirty dishes on your kitchen counter that need to be washed. She helps us ladies see that the state of our hearts directly affects our actions toward God. What we give to God is a direct reflection of our heart's affections.
She had us draw a heart that contained a number of concentric circles. Inside that inmost circle, we were to write the initials "HOH", which stands for "Holy Of Holies". This represents our inmost being, the place where our spirit is meant to dwell in communion with God's Holy Spirit. When this is really happening, our outward actions reflect that state of affection toward God. The ensuring concentric circles contained, in order from the center, spouse, children, family of origin, close spiritual friends, larger church family, and finally, all our friends and acquaintances.
When any of those relationship circles are empty, God's plan is to have us fill that hole with his love and provision. But, we women are "draggers", Lisa pointed out. We like to "drag" our best friend or our spouse into that circle that should be filled by a child when we are childless. We drag our mothers into the circle that should be occupied only by our husbands when we don't like the way our husbands are acting. We drag the wrong men into the circle that should be filled by a husband when we don't have one. And the drag show continues....
As Lisa was telling this story, a very colorful memory of my own popped into my head. We had a very stubborn dachshund named Bagel for 10 years. Bagel was absolutely "taken" by the horrid smell of dirty socks and skivvies. He would steal them from the laundry pile on laundry day and sneak them out to the back yard where he would bury them as his very own treasure! I can't tell you the number of times we were planting flowers in the springtime, digging up those backyard flower beds, when we came across a long-lost pair of boxer shorts or an athletic sock ribbed with soil. Sometimes an old undergarment would remain buried long enough to have roots growing through the fabric!
Okay, why such a graphic example? Because "dragging" is a filthy process! We are taking God's holy presence for granted, undervaluing it or not valuing it at all, and preferring something unholy, something that is really filthy by comparison. Human relationships are right and good in their proper place, but when they are "dragged" in to fill a void meant to be filled by God's love, they become like those underground undies!
Well, you get the point, I hope. Don't be a "dragger"! Accept the human relationships God gives you with joy and thankfulness. But, in the areas where you have a void, let God do the filling. Don't "drag" other relationships into that void like my dachshund did with the skivvies!
When our hearts are filled by the proper relationships, our outward giving habits will reflect God's love and generosity!
--Posted by Mama O.
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