What are you holding back from God?

Recently Acts 5:1-11 has been on my mind.  It is the story of Ananias and Sapphira.  If you are unfamiliar with the story you should definitely read it.  But the story takes place after the death of Jesus.  The apostles have begun the Christian Church and at this time people within the church are giving to the apostles and telling them to fill the needs of others.  Ananias and Sapphira decide to take part in the giving, however they tell Peter that they have sold their property and all of the money that they received they have given to the apostles.  This is a lie; they actually kept some of the money for themselves.  Ananias and Sapphira fall dead instantly.

So what did they do wrong?  After all they were giving something...

It's true they were giving something and had they admitted to giving some instead of claiming to give all God would have been accepting of that.  But Ananias and Sapphira weren't being honest. They were in it for the glory.  They wanted the recognition of giving it all, but they lied.

This story has been on my mind, and I started to really think about my life.  I have my days where I would love to say I am giving it all to God.  At this point I'm no longer just talking about money.  I'm talking about a lot of things i.e. money, time, worries, myself in general, etc.  But I know there is always more to give. Towards the middle of March and beginning of April I realized I had stretched myself so thin that God wasn't getting anything that He deserved out of me.  Worse than that I was telling myself that I was giving him as much as I could.  Looking back just one month ago...that thought is laughable.  It's at this point that I got off Facebook and abandoned my television in search of finding more to give to God. I found it, and I found that when it becomes a conscious thought to give more to God, you realize how little you have actually been giving all along.  I know I still am not giving God all He deserves all of the time, but I know that I am now aware of that.

So I leave this post with this thought.....

What and how much are you holding back from God?

God Bless