What have I to offer?

"...I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." (2 Samuel 24:24)

The Lord told King David to go and raise up an altar on the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah the Jebusite. When the king asked Araunah if he might buy it(the threshing floor), Araunah begged him to take it, as a gift, along with his oxen for an offering and the threshing sledges for fuel. "No," said the king, "...I will not offer to the Lord my God whole-offerings that have cost me nothing..."

In the same way, God has asked us to offer everything to Him. I have been writing very similar posts on my blog lately. My most recent was about surrender and how God asks for everything. I also posted back in August about how we're to lay everything at His feet.
As you can see, God is really teaching me what it means to give Him everything. Romans 12:1 says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." God has also been reminding me that I am not my own for I was bought with a price(1 Cor 6). Jesus Christ paid the ransom for my life with His own blood, therefore I am His. So my life should be lived in every way to glorify His name. To live in every way to glorify His name, we have to give ourselves to Him. And I have chosen this 2 Samuel passage for my post today to point out something very important about giving ourselves to Him. When we give ourselves, we have to give Him everything. If we give Him everything BUT...that one thing that is so hard to give up...then we aren't truly giving Him EVERYTHING. In fact, we must give to Him FIRST the things that are most difficult and in the context of the 2 Samuel passage, the things that are most costly- what we treasure the most.
I believe that He blesses us with wonderful gifts because He loves us. But then we have the opportunity to GIVE those wonderful gifts back to Him because we love Him.

What is the hardest thing for you to let go of? What do you treasure the most? What do you think of all the time? What consumes most of your time and energy. What does your heart long for? Where do your affections lie?
Think about this long and hard and ask yourself, "Am I giving this to the Lord?" And if not, "Am I willing to give this to the Lord?" Should the answer still be no, then I suggest asking the Lord to enable you to give this to Him. He will hear and respond to your prayer if it is your heart's desire.

He sacrificed what was most important to Himself for us out of His love for us. We need to be willing to give everything back to Him. It belongs to Him anyway.

Don't just give to Him what is easy to let go of. Give to Him what is the most difficult thing to give. You will never regret it.

"...I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing."