Bare Feet

seismic.shift – mine to God’s
- “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” - Malachi 3:10


- Have you ever been afraid to take off your shoes in public? Or take off your socks for that matter? There is a small sense of fear that goes along with taking your shoes off while with other people. You have the fear that perhaps your feet might not smell as good as when you put your shoes on that morning. But, when you do, even if it’s in the safety of your own room at home the feeling is incredible. The freedom of your toes is breathtaking (in more ways than one).
The principal of my Christian high school would frequently preach to the students during our weekly chapel sessions. Being that the school was in the south and he happened to be from Connecticut he had some different phrases for things. Different figures of speech than we were used to. One of his favorites was saying that God had or was going to “Bless your socks off”. I never really liked it when he said that, mainly because I was full of myself in high school but also because I rarely wore socks. I hadn’t thought about that phrase or him since I graduated until I read this verse. But the figure of speech is an interesting analogy. The feeling you get after taking your shoes off is pure freedom. Imagine that feeling of blessing throughout everything a part of your lives. Stick with me, I’m not comparing God’s blessings to refreshed feet but what I am saying is that: Basically, God is asking for us not to hold anything back, to offer our resources to him but mainly to offer ourselves “as living sacrifices” as Paul says in Romans 12:2. Being that all we are and all we have belongs to God in the first place, why not give it all back to him? God is essentially saying that if we empty our personal storehouses and bring all of our selves, our desires, and our possessions to him he is going to bless our socks off. My dad always used to say that the hardest part about being a living sacrifice is that it hurts and we keep trying to get off the altar. So, I invite you to hop on the altar and make the shift from a mindset of mine to an attitude that recognizes God as owner and operator of our lives.

Take your shoes off and run some water over your feet. Feel the immediate sense of freedom and refreshment that this causes. Walk into your room and look at your things. In your mind imagine yourself (you can even do this if you want) writing on an entire pack of post-it notes “God’s”. Then after that imagine yourself putting the notes on all your stuff. Put them on your computer, your playstation, you’re TV. your dog, your guitar, your window, everything you can see. Feel the immediate sense of freedom and refreshment that this causes. If we acknowledge that God owns everything in the first place we are free from the bondage of materialism.

In what ways are you trying to get off the altar?
What could you be offering to God that you aren’t already?
Why are your shoes still on?
What are other ways that I could give back to God what is rightfully his?