Real Effort For The Lord

2 Sam 24:21-25
²¹ Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people." ²² Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ "Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you." ²⁴ However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.


The Lord was pleased with David here because David sacrificed, not the burnt offerings, but the money that he needed in order to give the sacrifices to the Lord. Although David is King and has a lot of money, the effort was there to buy the lot and the oxens even though he could have gotten it for free, because it had to cost him something. A lot of times we give to the Lord, or the Lord is trying to teach us something, yet we take the shortcuts, we take the free items, it doesn't hurt us. We need to learn to sacrifice to the Lord where it impacts us.

There are many times where I would feel like I'm sacrificing something to the Lord or doing something for the Lord, yet it doesn't inconvience me. It doesn't show my faithfulness to Him. Sometimes, the Lord is trying to build our character or test us, but we need to let Him impact us.

Father God, I thank you for your words. Lord, I pray over these words that you let it speak in the spirit. Lord, I pray that I know how to draw close to you. Lord, I pray that I am impacted from your words. Lord, let me really sacrifice when I sacrifice. Let me seek you and to JUST seek you. Lord, I pray that I may know you. I pray that I put some effort in what I do for you. Everything I give to you, all my efforts is for your glory. I want to pray all this in Jesus Holy name.
Amen.