Emotional First Fruits

We all experience joys and pains as we walk with Jesus. Victories and Defeats. And we long to share them. While listening to a teaching this morning, I encountered a brilliant reality that I desperately needed to hear. Here is the truth: The person to whom we take the first-fruits of our emotions to is the one we become intimate with. The first-fruits of our pain.  The first-fruits of our joy.

I am convicted. Because I realize that countless times, I have taken the first-fruits of my emotions to people (wife, parents, co-worker, overseer, a friend). I will tell people in full color what I was feeling before ever talking to God for even a minute. Then, sometime the next day or so, I will talk to God about everything in 1 minute with no detail, because, after all, the Lord already knew (he must have heard the 45 minute version I gave my friend). However, the reality is that I gave my first fruits of emotions away to people instead of God.

The byproduct of this is: we build great horizontal relationships while we weaken our vertical one.

In Psalm 25:1, David was in a great deal of pain. He was really hurting. He could have gone to a lot of people. But he took his pain to the Lord. It says..."Unto thee, Oh Lord do I lift up my soul"!  Then, BAM...he let's God have the first fruits. Not people.

I think this is a lesson I have been learning.  A change I have been making. But now I see it much more clearly.  And I intend to live this.

Jesus gets the first fruits.  Not just financially, but emotionally.