God is serious about His commands but He is also fair, if you stop and think a little about what He says.

Take Sunday, for example.  The Lord commands that people set aside one day a week to honor Him and to rest.  One day.

So that means that you and I have six days to do all the stuff that needs doing.  It’s kind of like God says to give Him one day and we can keep six.  It seems to me that the Lord is being pretty generous.

This is not the first time God has done this.  You may remember that He told Adam and Eve, our ancient ancestors, that they could eat the fruit from any of the trees around their beautiful estate except for one tree.  I don't know how many trees they had to choose from, but let’s agree that there were a bunch of them.  In His generosity, He allowed a big number to be harvested and only prohibited one.  Just one.

God’s generosity is clearly seen in His commands for stewardship, too.  He tells us to keep 90% of what we earn and give Him 10%.  That means out of 100 bucks you and I should give Him only 10 dollars (this math is easy).  Just one out of every 10.  You keep the nine.

Of course I know that we are responsible to do well with what we keep—whether it’s the balance of our week or the balance in our checking account.  Every day and every decision ought to honor the Lord.

The generosity of the Lord comes with a price:  disobedience to what He has commanded is very expensive.

God’s fences are there to help and not to hurt—which is not only fair, but also very compassionate.