Is God Getting Your Leftovers?

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. – Proverbs 3:9-10

A while back, I was listening to a sermon that was talking about leftovers, more specifically, the leftovers of our time. And the main question that really stuck with me that the pastor asked was this: Is God getting your leftovers when it comes to your time?

I felt extremely convicted when I heard that question…because I knew the answer was yes. I knew God had been getting a few minutes in my Bible here, a short prayer in the car there, but I was basically giving Him my scraps. I was like one of those super busy CEOs you see in the movies who barely has time to schedule a bathroom break, much less a last-minute meeting. And I didn’t like how that made me feel. I didn’t like admitting that God was getting my leftovers. I wanted to give Him my best. I wanted to give Him my first fruits, especially when it came to my time.

Have you ever struggled with this? Have you found yourself squeezing time with God in between school, work, family obligations, time with friends, chores, errands, and even just time to rest and decompress from your day? If you have, I’m right there with you, friend. It’s not a fun place to be. But thankfully, it’s not a place we have to stay.

We can make changes. We can alter our schedules. We can switch things up to intentionally allocate time to spend with our Heavenly Father. And trust me, if we do, it will be so worth it.

I wasn’t perfect at this, but once I realized I didn’t want God just getting my leftovers, and when I did start to make changes, I could see a difference. I could see a shift in my mood, my attitude, my state of mind, my relationships, all of it. My time with the Lord seeped into every other area of my life and made things better.

Now don’t get me wrong, life doesn’t become perfect just because you spend more time with Jesus. There is still a lot going on and we have to fight the temptation to remain in a state of overwhelm every day. But we don’t have to fight that temptation alone. The Lord is with us through it, and we will become so much more aware of His presence when we carve out time for Him earlier in the day.

If you feel like God is getting your leftovers, or even if you can tell your schedule is starting to get busier and you’re tempted to shorten or squeeze out your time with the Lord, I can’t urge you enough to make time with Him your top priority.

Give Him your best. Give Him your first fruits, not your leftovers. Meet with Him in the mornings before your feet even hit the floor (unless you have to pee, in which case, by all means, take care of that first. He’ll understand.)

Spend time with Him in prayer. Read a Psalm or a Proverb a day. Find a devotion book you really love. (I highly recommend any of Lysa Terkeurst’s devotionals.) Whatever you do, just spend time investing in your relationship with Jesus each day. I promise you, that time with Him is something you will never regret placing at the top of your priority list.