Give God Your Best; He Gave His Best For You...

...Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.

2 Samuel 24:24

So many of us would love the idea of getting over when it comes to our walk with the Lord… We have experienced highs and lows, we have seen ups and downs and sometimes in our life we would love to get an easy pass or a shortcut through all the muck and mire of the day… In reading this passage we are challenged to reflect on the goodness of the Lord despite all the mistakes and bad choices that we have made… David says neither will I offer burnt offering unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing; David spoke these words from the sincerity or his heart knowing and realizing what God had done for him… When you begin to think about the goodness of Jesus, when you begin to think back to all the wrong you have done and come to the realization that it was God’s grace and mercy which kept you and brought you out, your mindset changes and you want to give your all to the Lord… In this passage, David is declaring that he is not worthy of the blessings being bestowed upon him (despite the plague that God was about to place on the Israelites); he wants the Lord to know the love that he has for Him… So he wants to sacrifice (in the form of payment) to the Lord… When you come to the point where you realize how awesome God is, you then will not give anything to Him which doesn’t cost you something… This gesture displays the attitude that a Christian must have; you cannot try to get over on the Lord in your giving and expect His unlimited favor… Malachi 3:10 says, “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 there will not be room enough to store it.” You are called to test the Lord in your giving; this requires that you give something of value and not things that you deem replaceable… This same principle applied to the heart of David and led to this verse being recorded in the 24^th chapter of 2^nd Samuel… In studying this passage I am lead to pose this question, how valuable is your relationship with God…? How much do you treasure being in good standing with the Lord…? Are you someone who attends church out of obligation or to pay true respect and honor to the Lord…? These questions are questions that are posed all across the world; however they are answered through actions not words, through devotion and not presentation… This passage is written at a time when David knew that he had sinned against God; he knew that he had fallen short of His glory and understands that he had to restore his relationship with God… We too have made many mistakes; we have damaged our relationship with the Lord and the question now because “how bad do you want to repair it…?” What does God’s love mean to you, how much do you want to show God your appreciation and love…? What are you offering Him…? These are important factors in our life that we too must come to understand; God deserves all of our time and commitment because we have fallen short, he deserves the very best we have because we turned our backs on Him and lost sight of His Grace and Mercy!

This is why David said I will not offer anything unto the Lord that cost me nothing, he realized all that it cost God to save us from sin, he realized all that God gave and invested in him to see him reign as King and he came to the realization that he was throwing it all away… We must never forget that God gave His only begotten son, we must never lose sight that Jesus died the most humiliating death known to man and all this was done to save us from our eternal death… When I sit and really ponder what God has done and how He bestows new mercies on us every morning I realize that there is nothing of this earth that I shouldn’t give unto Him… I know that God has given His very best in the form of His son and I dare not to acknowledge His sacrifice with meaningless words or things… God wants your heart, He wants your life; anything else is worthless… The cost that David speaks of in this verse refers to the amount that he puts out for the Lord… This doesn’t necessarily deal with money, but the amount of energy, time, devotion that we pour out to studying God’s word, praising His name and worshipping Him…David had a right perspective of who God is and what He means to him… So he wanted to show his devotion to the Lord by paying for the land to be offered back to God… When we trust God, when we desire to worship God we also act in faith knowing that God sees all things and will reward us by our giving and devotion… Think about how precious the gift is that God gave to you in the form of His son and ask yourself what gifts are you giving to God… The only thing that God wants is you, you are the gift that He desires and we give ourselves to Him by totally surrendering to His will and way… This is where the cost comes in, I have often thought and told myself that if it comes easy it isn’t what I need… Today, know that offering yourself to Christ is going to cost you some friendships, it’s going to cost you some fleshly desires and it’s going to cost you some aches and pains… Do we know how much it cost God to raise us up out of the pit of sin, how much it cost to release us from the handcuffs of death, and pave a way to salvation! It cost Him His only son, it cost Him pain and anguish to witness His son on the cross dying an agonizing and intensely painful death… It cost God a great deal to watch His son be spit on, mocked and beat, it cost God a great deal to see Him laid in a tomb and watch the throngs of people mourning… It cost God more than we could ever offer Him and we surely could never pay back to Him what He put out! Let us keep that in mind when we go to church, let us keep that in mind when we put down our bibles instead of reading, let us keep that in mind when we make God’s will and afterthought in our life… How much does God mean to you? How much do you really believe He poured out from on high to save you…? Show your belief in your actions and service to the Lord… David said I will not offer anything unless it cost me something, not because he wanted to spend, but because he knew how much God had already spent!

BE BLESSED!!!