My wife and I often talk about our first Valentine’s Day after we got married. We didn’t have a lot of money so each of us got creative. I got a cheap frame that held multiple pictures and I put in photos of us on our Honeymoon. She cooked dinner, cleaned the house and ironed all of my work clothes. Each of us were disappointed with our gifts and each of us were offended that the other wasn’t appreciative. We hadn’t learned how to give each other a gift that had value in the other’s eyes. As we’ve learned more about each other, we’ve learned how to give each other better gifts.
In II Samuel 24, King David was tested by God. He was told to take a census and he did. His commander knew it was a test and begged David not to do it, but he insisted. When it was all done, David became overwhelmed with guilt for taking the census. There’s a debate over what the sun was in taking the census. I believe that sin is an attitude more than it is an action. It could be that David became prideful in looking at the numbers and began to think it was his doing and not God’s. It could be that he trusted statistics more than God. Whatever the case, God was upset.
In verse 13, the prophet came to David with a message from God of what the penalty of his sin would be. He could choose to either have three years of famine, three months of running from his enemies or three days of an epidemic in Israel. David knew God was merciful and let Him choose. God chose the epidemic. After 70,000 people had died, the epidemic looked to wipe out Jerusalem, but God said, “Enough’s enough,” and stopped it. David then went to offer a sacrifice to God where the epidemic stopped.
He wanted to buy the threshing floor from the person who owned it so he could build an altar to God, but the man offered it to him for free because it was the king asking. He offered for free everything that David needed for the sacrifice, but David refused. He said he needed to buy it for a good price because he wouldn’t offer God sacrifices that weren’t a sacrifice to him. He knew what my wife and I didn’t on our first Valentine’s. The best, most meaningful gifts that we can give are a sacrifice for us to give. They hit us where it hurts. For some, it’s money. For others, it’s time. Each of us have a different way of sacrificing.
What’s the greatest sacrifice you can make for God? Fasting? Money? Time? Whatever it is, if we want to see God show us greater mercy, then we have to offer greater sacrifices. We can’t be complacent in our gifts to him. We can no longer give Him that which costs us nothing. When we think of Biblical heroes, many of them made great sacrifices as a gift to God. If we want to be great in God’s Kingdom, we need to find a way to sacrifice greatly for Him. We need to offer Him something that costs us, not something that was given to us.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 