Craving to give
I was reading Malachi and this one sentence really arrested my heart. “I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.” - Mal. 1:10
This brought chills down my spine.
I was going over the story of Cain and Abel with my son the other night. After our story, I put him to sleep. As he was turning over to sleep, he started to cry. I asked why he was crying, and he said that God was speaking to him. He said that God was asking him questions about the bible and that if he could not answer Him correctly, God would be angry and punish him. I guess I under-emphasized God’s grace in that story.
What is it about man that we have a deep craving for our offering to be accepted? When we offer the fruit of our hard labor, we want others to appreciate it, whether it is an A on the test, a creative solution to a problem, or a percentage of our hard earned money.
Since I read the passage above, I have been trying to pinpoint why I was so arrested by that verse and why the thought of not being able to offer God anything of value brought fear into my heart. I concluded that we have a need to bring offering to God. That is why Cain and Abel brought offerings to God long before God demanded it from them (at least Bible doesn’t specify that God demanded an offering from them). Giving offering was the very first human activity to God. There is a deep craving woven into our soul to offer God something of value, not only to please Him per se, but to satisfy our own soul cravings. The problem is that many of us have not awakened to this craving.
I wonder how many people (myself included) are living unsatisfied, substandard life because they have not awakened to this soul craving to give to God our best offering. So much of giving has been done grudgingly, not knowing that it really brings deep, profound joy into our hearts. To be sure, giving is for His pleasure, but He is so generous that our greatest joy is released into us when we please Him…
Hi Pastor Do,
I really enjoy reading your entries. I have a wordpress account now too. It is required for one of my classes. I talk art nonsense in it. Anyways, hope you are well, I think your at Servants now. Hope to see you sometime soon!