Setting aside God's portion

In the offering message this week, I brought a challenge from Deuteronomy 14:22: 
“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.”

When I asked what words stood out to people, someone said ‘field’, another said ‘tenth’. This is why it is good to come together and chew through scripture, we all see different things and together they make our understanding broader and deeper.

When I was pondering on this verse during the week, the words that sat with me sat earlier in the verse: “be sure to set aside.”

While financial giving matters, our shared life and ability to outwork mission as a church is sustained by our giving into it; I’ve been wondering how this principle stretches further. What might it look like to “set aside” not just money, but attention, time, and energy? What is intentionally marked off as belonging to God before everything else fills the space?

It’s a bit like prioritising a well-balanced, nourishing diet, when we are properly fed, we’re simply less drawn to what doesn’t help us health-wise. In the same way, a life intentionally grounded in God begins to nourish us spiritually, and over time, those things that don’t bring life lose their pull.

This might look like setting aside unhurried time in Scripture, not the last two minutes before sleep but a deliberate space in the day. It could be regular prayer walks, serving in a ministry team, practicing generosity beyond finances or committing to gather consistently with others in worship. These small, intentional acts which are set aside first, begin to shape a life oriented toward God.

Because what we set aside will quietly shape what we set our hearts upon.

Colleen