The Price Is Right

“Then the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.” (2 Samuel 24:24-25).

For many years Bob Barker hosted the popular game show The Price Is Right where contestants must guess the price of the items before they can win them. God too will give us lots of goodies from heaven if we guess right the price of living for Him and obeying His Word. When King David came to offer a sacrifice and pray to God for the withdrawal of a plague on Israel, he was given the opportunity by Araunah to make the sacrifice for free. Araunah was a generous man and had offered King David the oxen, the yokes for wood and the threshing implements for the offering. David understood the principle of giving and said he couldn’t offer to God things that didn’t cost him anything. Unless David paid for it and The Price Is Right, it wasn’t a sacrificial gift pleasing unto God.

We all can give something of value to others and to ministries that preach the gospel and in so doing we give sacrificially to God as we obey His Word with our time, our love, our money, or our talents. When was the last time you sacrificed for someone that cost you pain with absolutely no expectation of getting anything in return? When was the last time you wrote a big fat check to support God’s work to evangelize the nations or give away your best designer clothes or that late model luxury car, not the clothes you don’t want or the car you hardly drive?

If we expect something, then it becomes business, exchange, barter and no sacrifice is made, no offering is accepted by God, no seed is sown, and no harvest will happen. Giving is not giving until it hurts because our flesh doesn’t want to give. Giving signifies spiritual maturity and godliness, for selfish minds won’t give. Giving is an act of serving others for Jesus said that we must consider others more important than ourselves. We can also offer to God a life dedicated to Him by abstaining from sinful pleasures for this too will cost us the pain of delayed or no gratification, social isolation or withdrawal symptoms.

We can offer God time from our busy lives to seek His face, to meditate on His Word day and night so that we can think like Him, strengthen our spirits, renew our minds and restore our souls. We can offer to God the sacrifice of praise from our lips when we are hurting, sick, oppressed, separated, or broke, or else it won’t be much of a sacrifice. We can return to God the tithes from our income or increase, which are His anyway and many of us just don’t feel like it, and offerings above the tithes, with thanksgiving daily and rejoice always, for the joy of the LORD is our strength.
Copyright © 2002 Eddy Ministries.
All rights reserved.

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