Meaningful Worship
King David gave us some great insights into worship in his psalms and from his attitude when he worshiped the Lord. One of them came when David was desperate to appease the wrath of God after he had sinned by doing a census, and God sent a plague on the people. He knew He needed to offer a burnt offering quickly, but he knew it had to be very sincere and meaningful for God to receive it.(I Chronicles 21:24) The sacrifice did calm the wrath of God, so we need to see why David's worship was accepted.
David was going to use the threshing floor of Ornan to offer the sacrifice, but he would not do it, until he paid the full price for the place and the animal to sacrifice. He gave two reasons for this. The first reason was that it had to be a personal act of worship, giving of what was his to God. He could not borrow the sacrifice and have God accept it. It would not be his. When we worship, it must be our personal worship to offer Him our hearts by presenting our praise to Him by our words and actions. It is not enough just to be in a worship service. We must sing and participate with all of our being for God to accept our offering to Him.
The second reason is that we can't offer God something that does not cost us anything and expect Him to take note of it. Worship must cost us our time, energy, and full dedication to honor Him. When we bring our tithes and offerings that is costly worship, too. God gave Himself for us, we have to give our costly things to Him. This is when meaningful worship takes place.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles 25-27.
David was going to use the threshing floor of Ornan to offer the sacrifice, but he would not do it, until he paid the full price for the place and the animal to sacrifice. He gave two reasons for this. The first reason was that it had to be a personal act of worship, giving of what was his to God. He could not borrow the sacrifice and have God accept it. It would not be his. When we worship, it must be our personal worship to offer Him our hearts by presenting our praise to Him by our words and actions. It is not enough just to be in a worship service. We must sing and participate with all of our being for God to accept our offering to Him.
The second reason is that we can't offer God something that does not cost us anything and expect Him to take note of it. Worship must cost us our time, energy, and full dedication to honor Him. When we bring our tithes and offerings that is costly worship, too. God gave Himself for us, we have to give our costly things to Him. This is when meaningful worship takes place.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles 25-27.