That Which Doth Cost Me NothingBy
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A friend of mine wrote:
That was quite literally a revelation. I had no idea, and the thought blew me away. I realized that I had not even taken sufficient ownership and responsibility for my life. In fact, I hated my life, didn’t want it, especially the part about same-sex attraction.
It was disappointing, but I realized that I was a lot further behind than I had realized. Before I could truly surrender to God, I had to care about what I was surrendering.
Still working on owning my life and being humble enough to give it.
This reminded me of an incident in the Old Testament where David numbered Israel and angered the Lord. It isn’t clear why the Lord was angry with David doing a census, though it may have well been a prelude to an unauthorized war.
For punishment upon all of Israel, the Lord gave David a choice between three options. David chose the one that left Israel completely in the Lord’s hands. The options were, seven years of famine, three months of failure in battle, or three month of pestilence. David’s choice was for the pestilence, not wanting to be punished at the hands of man.
The Lord sent the pestilence and seventy thousand men died. David admitted his sin and asked the Lord to punish him and not the people.
Then the prophet Gad came and commanded David to make sacrifices. David went to one Araunah, a Jebusite, to buy a threshingfloor for the building of an altar. Araunah preferred to give the king the property, the animals for the sacrifice, and anything else the king needed.
But David’s answer was profound and meaningful like what has been said here by my friend:
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24)
The sacrifice of our day is a broken heart and contrite spirit. Yet, what kind of sacrifice is it if we give something that is not valuable to us?
