Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Nehemiah chapter 10, verse 35, we obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground

and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree year by year to the house of the Lord.

So this verse comes in the middle of this rebuilding process among God's people.

So in the book of Ezra, the temple was rebuilt. In the book of Nehemiah here, the walls around Jerusalem

have been rebuilt. And now the people are committing themselves, the kind of lives they're going to live

and the kind of community they're going to be as God's people in Jerusalem.

And they say in Nehemiah 10, verse 35, we obligate ourselves, like we commit ourselves

to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree year by year

to the house of the Lord. That word first fruits, you see it twice, is a clear reminder to us that God

calls each one of us to give our best in every way to his work.

And so tithing or first fruits, some of these pictures we see in the Old Testament,

there's a lot of discussion about how much that applies.

And the New Testament, I think there's no question when we read the New Testament

that the kind of giving we see in the Old Testament

just goes to a whole other level in the New Testament. We give generously, sacrificially,

willingly, cheerfully, certainly from the start when we receive money, our first thought should be how can we give

some of this for the work of God to spread the worship of God and to do that generously,

sacrificial, cheerfully, willingly. And then in all of our lives and every facet of who we are and what we have,

to say, God, here's my best. Use it maximally for your glory. Like read 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9

and see a picture of how Nehemiah 10 plays out in New Testament giving. Oh God, we pray that you would help us to

give like this. I pray that even right now in each one of our hearts, our minds,

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