22 And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” 23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” 24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” ~ 1 Chronicles 21:22-24
How often do we bring offerings that cost us nothing, and expect God to move mountains for us? We don’t want to be uncomfortable or be put out in order to give God what He deserves. We will settle for less than the very minimum so that we can ease our conscience and continue on with our lives. We expect God to do great things for us, to have mercy on us, to show us favor and grace, yet we never want to step out and give God our best. We never want to sacrifice our flesh for God. Sacrifice our time. Sacrifice our food. Our music. We want our cake and eat it too.
Stop settling for the bare minimum. You want to see great things happen? Then you need to do great things. You need to sacrifice your time. Your food. Your flesh. Your music. You have to bring your very best when you come before the altar of God. Don’t be fooled by the idea that God is just a genie waiting for you to make a request. Sure He desires you to come before Him, to make your requests known to Him, but not empty-handed. Not without bringing something first for Him. Bring your offerings and sacrifices that cost you something.
Too often we are like Cain, we bring whatever falls off the tree and expect God to be excited and thankful for some dropped fruit. We need to be like Abel, who brought his very best. He brought the first and gave it to God. We see the Abels of the world being accepted, and we become envious. Instead of us giving our best and doing what we know we need to do, we focus on the Abels, and we try to destroy them, in turn destroying ourselves. Don’t look at others and their rewards, you never know what they sacrificed to get it. Bring your own sacrifices, your own offerings to the Altar of God.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bring Your Best.
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