Have you ever truly committed your life to the Lord? When the Lord is your God, you make a personal commitment to Him. In Genesis 28:10-22, Jacob didn’t just “say” he had made a commitment and that the Lord was his God; he showed it by doing several, practical things that we will do too, if the Lord is our God:.
Jacob said because the Lord was his God, that he would take the stone he had rested his head against, and set it upright as a memorial pillar, and make the place where God had appeared to him, a place of worship. When the Lord is really your God, you will be committed to worship Him. Nobody “made” Jacob set up a place to worship God at Bethel. He WANTED to do that. God had really touched his life; he had really himself committed to Him, so he wanted to set up a place to worship Him there. And that is characteristic of someone who has really made the Lord their God. They want to worship Him. And if the Lord is really your God, then you are going to worship Him every day — starting at HOME! Worshiping God is the most important thing in your life, and you will do it all the time.
Jacob said in Genesis 28:22, “and of all that You give me, I will surely give a tenth to You.” It really is a mark of one’s commitment to the Lordship of God in his life. Jacob said, in effect, God, You are going to be my God: and one of the ways I am going to show it is by giving You the first tenth of everything You give me. That tithe was a mark, a sign, that God was really the Lord of his life. One of the most practical ways we can show the real priority of God in our lives, is by tithing. THAT is not just cheap talk. THAT is “putting your money where your mouth is” and shows that the Lord is really your God.
There are several signs like that that show whether the Lord really is, or isn’t your God. These are the two that Genesis 28:10-22 shows us: worshiping and giving.
The key is, if the Lord is really your God, there WILL be signs of it in your life. Your life will not be the same as everyone else’s, or the same as it used to be. There will be some things in your life that are different, and that will change, because you have committed your life to the Lord. We saw that in Franklin Graham’s life. In his early years, he lived for fun, for pleasure. He didn’t want Jesus telling him what to do. But after he committed his life to the Lord, things changed. And you can see it to this day. Franklin Graham has SHOWED that the commitment he made to the Lord that night in his bed was real, by the way that he has lived his life ever since.
Can that be said of YOUR life? Have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus as the Lord & Savior of your life? Is the Lord your God? And if you say He is, does your life show it?
— Are you worshiping Him regularly, in “the house of God” like Jacob?
— And are you gladly giving back to Him from what He has given you?
It’s just like Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.” If that’s so — and it is — then what does the fruit of your life say about whether the Lord really is YOUR God?!
(SHAWN THOMAS)