Thursday, December 6, 2012

“Freewill offering…..”


“Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.  Take your sinful actions from My eyes. Stop doing sinful things.   Learn to do good.  Look for what is right and fair.

Speak strong words to those who make it hard for people. Stand up for the rights of those who have no parents. Help the woman whose husband has died.”   Isa. 1:16-17 NLV

Isaiah the prophet reminds me that the God who never grows weary can and does grow weary.

A contradiction?   No!

God never grows physically “weary” but He does grow morally” weary. (Isa. 40:28,  1:14)   Nothing can exhaust the Lord’s energy, but my lame, empty sacrifice can cause Him to say: “I have had enough!”……… “I take no pleasure in [them]”…….. “I cannot endure [them]”………. “they have become a burden to Me.”  (Isa. 1:11, 13, 14)

Strong language!   But no stronger than the feelings God has toward any hypocrisy He finds in me.   He cannot tolerate the difference between a good sacrifice (legally) and a bad heart (spiritually).  

Neither can He tolerate the imbalance between a strong, loud profession and a phony life.   God’s weariness is His annoyance, He is never weary of receiving contrite sinners, but He tires of my “motional” Christianity without love.

To weary God is a serious matter; it can mean the death of my prayer life. 

 “Though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.”  (Isa. 1:15)    God will not join the game we are playing.   If we act and treat Him as if He is of little worth or importance, He will break His lines of communication with us and our prayers will become so much wasted air.

Thus, by playing it cool and casual, I may unconsciously abort many blessings God had planned to give me.   I cannot afford to be without His blessings; therefore, I must not offer Him shoddy love or lame devotion.

The kind of offering He yearns for is the “freewill” kind.

“I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.”   Psalm 54:6 TNIV

 

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