Today's Devotional

October 17, 2002

Subject:  Giving Our Best

2Samuel 24:24 - "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 threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."

About a year ago I realized that I had a lot of children's clothes around the house that were too small for my kids that they would probably never wear again.  As a matter of fact, I still have some today.  What do you do with all of these things?  If there is no one in your immediate area to pass them to, then the Goodwill or Salvation Army is always an option.  These are great organizations and they help many needy people.

However, for me, I always have this really strange feeling when I think of what I'm giving to help those in need.  Some of the clothing is really nice, but it basically has cost me nothing.  I mean this is all stuff that I could just as soon throw away and it wouldn't be missed.  That's fine in the area of used clothes, but I wonder if sometimes we do the same thing with God.  You know, go to church and give 10% of our earnings and feel great about it because we know that it basically is easy for us to do on our 6 digit salaries.  We could even decide to attend a bible study once a week because it doesn't take much time out of our schedule or conflict with watching football or our favorite TV show.  When giving to God, we might go through much effort to ensure that there is nothing that conflicts with our comfort.  This is truly not giving God our best.

In the passage above, King David says that he will not offer to the Lord anything that doesn't cost him something.  Do the things you give to God actually cost you anything or is it just leftover stuff that doesn't matter?  Does your goodwill extend only as far as convenience takes you or will you actually sacrifice time, money, position or prestige to do God's work?

We should give Him something that costs us and actually, that which costs us much would still be too little, but let's give Him our best.  

Carlen