Araunah the Jebusite was just being polite. When he found out that David wanted to purchase his threshing floor to build an altar, he bent over backward and offered his oxen for the sacrificial offering, as well as the wood on which to burn it. David wouldn't hear of it. If it was going to be a true sacrifice, he knew he'd have to "sacrifice" something. Like his hard earned cash.
With us, it doesn't have to be our cash. It could be our time or our prayers, our gifts and talents. I'm thinking right now of Carolyn, a seamstress friend of mine who barely makes ends meet by sewing and tailoring. Carolyn lives alone in her small apartment with her cat and works late into the night, stitching up a storm. Last Christmas she wasn't able to buy the gifts she would have liked; so she went one better - she stayed up extra late, making presents of skirts and vests. Her friends were going to receive the best she could offer, even if it meant missing a deadline on a commission, even if it meant early hours and sore fingers. Those skirts and vests are, to us blessed folks who received them, more valuable than anything you'd purchase at Sax Fifth Avenue.
Oswald Chambers has said, "Our notion of sacrifice is the wringing out of us something we don't want to give up, full of pain and agony and distress. The Bible idea of sacrifice is that I give as a love-gift the very best thing I have."
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What is your "best thing"? No doubt it is something which has cost you. When we offer our best, it always takes a bite out of something we hold dear - whether our billfold, time, friendships, sleep, food, pride, or our clothes closet. Always offer to God your best.
If I offer You something today, may it be my best. If it's not, Lord, stop me from thinking of it as an offering!
Blessings,
Joni and Friends
Joni and Friends Daily Devotional
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