Free, Free, Free we always want to get something for free. If not free we want it to come at the lowest cost possible for us. Because it hurts when you have to give up one thing to get another. But if you can get something and feel no pain that is what you would rather do. There is only one problem with that mindset. If it didn’t come at a cost you will never respect it.
Think about the two kids who both get a nice car for their 16th birthday. One kid worked all summer and put all they had into the car. The other just got one because mom and dad could afford it. Nothing was expected of them. Which will take better care of their vehicle?
We have to be honest and say it’s probably gonna be the kid who had to work for it. Simply because it cost them something. They realize how hard they had to work to get it. Meaning they know what it would take to get another. This creates healthy respect.
In our faith, we often want to be like a child with well off parents. Having things given to us without it costing us anything. Then if it does cost us something we want it to be minimal. That’s why we are quick to do somethings and not other things.
We are fine with just a few hours a week at church. You better not try to add any extra though cause I am busy. In fact, can’t we just make services shorter? Or sure I’ll pray sometimes for a few minutes that’s not so bad. I am not gonna fast though because I have to eat. Oh, you only want ten percent of my income in tithes? Sure I can swing that. Oh, wait you also want me to give money to missions? Can’t the church just do that?
Those are just a few examples and sadly I could probably write a lot more. The point is we only want to give the bare minimum, even in our faith. However, we want to ask for so much and we add to the list daily. We want God to move in our lives in grand ways. Answering every prayer and moving the mountains that stand in the way of what we think we want for our lives.
We try to play being a Christian as people would play the lottery. Putting in a little every week. Always hoping that big pay off is going to come. Well just like millions of people playing the lottery every week chances are your numbers won’t come up. G
For example, David even understood this principle.
2 Samuel 24:22-24
22 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar.
23 I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen.
David had sinned in the eyes of the lord and was instructed to make sacrifice unto the Lord. He told to build an altar on Araunah’s threshing floor and make the sacrifice there. When David arrived and spoke to Araunah he offered to just give David all he would need to make an offering. This is where the story gets really good.
Most people would have just thanked Araunah for his sacrifice. Taking what he had offered and sacrificing it unto the Lord. Assuming that would work as intended. David knew he could not do that because it would not really be his sacrifice. For it to count as his sacrifice it had to cost him something. In the above scenario, Araunah is the one who would have paid the cost.
Likewise, we need to have the same understanding as David. Knowing that what we offer to God must cost us something. Everything we are expected to do as Christians today can be considered offerings to the Lord. When we pray we are sacrificing our time. By fasting, we are sacrificing food to experience God. Through paying tithes we are sacrificing our paychecks to further the kingdom of God.
All of those cost us, but we have to the ability to determine just how much they cost us. Or if we even allow them to cost us anything at all. What we need to realize is if we are asking for something big from God. We should, in turn, make a big payment to the kingdom. That could be through any means you may have. Doing this proves to God that we trust in him. That we are not just freeloaders but workers. Doing our part to receive something from Him.
Does this mean that the more we give to God the more he will give to us? No, and that’s really not the point. God has already given us so much. He created this world and all that is in it. When man sinned and sentenced himself to death. God provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus’s death on the cross. And so much more in each of our lives. Things we cannot begin to imagine.
God has done more then we could ever repay. At no cost to us. While we could never afford to repay the cost God has paid for us that does not mean we shouldn’t give all we have. Take an inventory of your life at this moment. Rember that this life is not your own. It belongs to the one who created you. Have your offerings to God truly cost you anything? Or have you been only giving the bare minimum to God?
If you feel, as I do, that you could be giving more I have good news. Because you are able to read this article that means you still have time. Life is still crossing through your body. Decide at this moment that you want to give God more than you ever have before. Ask for God’s help, praying for him to be with you and ever-present in your mind.
Take some time and praise God. Thanking him for all that he has done for you. Don’t ask for anything just give thanks. When you feel like you have gone long enough go just a little longer. Pay that extra cost to the Lord. He is worthy of all the praise and honor!
Psalm 145:3
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.