and this is what I heard Him say:
God spoke to me today from a single word that occurs 23 times in Leviticus 27. That word is: "value," and this is what I heard Him say to me:
“Value! Everything has value. So be careful what you promise to give to Me. Should you promise to give Me something like a car, a house, a service, a trust fund, or whatever, be sure that you know what you are doing. Should you decide, ‘Oh, I acted impulsively, I really want that back.’ Don’t think for a moment about substituting an inferior replacement. Instead, you may buy it back by paying the equivalent value plus twenty percent (1/5) of its value. If it was valuable enough for you to give it to Me, to begin with, then it is valuable enough to attach even more to take it back from me. My servant Solomon summed this up for you: ‘It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider his vows’ (Proverbs 20:25), and again, ‘When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 ).’ Everything has value.