THE COST OF SERVICE
In 2 Samuel 24:24 we read that King David refused to offer unto God a sacrifice that cost him nothing. A sacrifice that doesn’t cost anything is no real sacrifice at all! In fact, inherent in the definition of sacrifice is the idea of cost. Yet so many today want to give God that which is no sacrifice to them at all. We give God our leftovers, our hand-me-downs, our undesirables, and we expect God in turn to bless us with new and better things.
Have you counted the cost?
The author C. S. Lewis once wrote concerning giving that “the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.”
Without controversy we know that our lives are to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1–2). That is each day from the first fruits, the best of our hearts, our words, our thoughts, our labors. Doing all to and for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). What was the cost of Jesus’ service to us and to the Father? “I lay down my life” (John 10:15). How is your giving? Be faithful!