Quiet Time Files 052311

But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

2 Samuel 24:24

Background: King David had ordered a census of the fighting men of Israel, without having been told to do so by God and without paying the "ransom" demanded for an accounting (see Exodus 30:12). Because of his sin, a pestilence was sent on the people, progressing through the land on the way to Jerusalem. God stopped the plague early, at the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan in the parallel passage in 1Chronicles 21). Araunah offers to give the site to David, who intends to use it as the site of an altar to God out of gratitude for stopping the plague.

But David insists on making payment, stating that he will not offer to God that which cost him nothing.

What do they cost us, the things we give to the Lord? Are we giving Him only the easy things, the leftovers, the less than perfect? When we sing "I surrender all" on Sunday morning, are we secretly holding back that one questionable area of our behavior, that one sin that we cherish above all? When we offer the gifts He has given us back to Him in His service, are we doing it to obtain the praise of men?

I have to admit, more often than I like I must answer yes to those questions.

David understood that there is a price to be paid to worship God, a cost to our offering. Jesus himself told us that following Him would mean putting aside control over our lives to yield all to Him:

And he said to all,"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and daily follow me. For whoever would save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

Luke 9:23

The final verse of an old hymn puts it this way:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Heavenly Father, All too often I shortchange my offering to You, holding back bits and pieces that need to be laid out before You. I greedily clutch what I consider "mine", refusing to believe that what You have for me is infinitely better. Loosen my grip, Lord, grant me the strength to lay my life out as an offering to you, my all in all.
In Jesus' name,
Amen