What have you got to offer?

Have you ever found yourself feeling like you’re making an awful lot of sacrifices in order to please God?  Well I’m here to tell you today that that’s how it’s supposed to be.  God is asking us to offer Him things that cost us something.  That is what makes them gifts that please Him.

In 1 Chronicles 21, David screwed up (seems to be a theme with David, huh?)  He ordered that a census be taken and God was not happen.   However, David was repentant (also a theme) and an angel told him to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.  

So when he approaches this threshing floor here is what happens:

21Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

What if one of my kids adult kids came to you and said, “Hey, I really appreciate you.  I’d like you to have this $100.”   Of course, you would be shocked (as would I because this is highly unlikely).   And of course you would say, “I can’t take that.  Keep it and use it for the things you need.”  And then imagine that they say, “Oh, it’s fine.  It’s my Dad’s money.”  

Does your thinking immediately change from “What a great kid!” to “REALLLY???????

That’s what happens when we come to God acting as though we are making great sacrifices when we are actually giving him things that don’t cost us much.   God’s probably a bit kinder than you or I but I wonder if sometimes He thinks, “REALLLY?????”

As you go about your day, if you are doing something for God, do something that costs you.   That’s where the blessing lies.

I just love this song.... and think if it often.