Only Yourself to Give, Ps. 51:17ESV

You're supposed to come to Him with nothing because at that point all you have to give, all you can give is yourself, and you, your heart is what He wants.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ps. 51:16-17ESV

The only sacrifice that the Lord wants from us, us our hearts.  He wants “a broken and contrite heart”.  Is your heart broken when you realize that you have sinned?  Contrite:  Feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a wrong you have done.  Are you remorseful and do you feel sorrow for what you have done?  1 Samuel 16:7 teaches us that the Lord looks at the heart.  Proverbs 21:2 says, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.

Let’s refer back to U2’s Gloria:  O Lord, if I had anything, anything at all, I’d give it to you.  Interesting that we would echo this.  It is such a human trait to think that we have or own anything.  Everything belongs to God.  We own nothing.  Everything we “think” we have is on loan while we’re here:  The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,[a]

the world and those who dwell therein, Ps. 24:1ESV.  So, all we have to give is ourselves.  

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.  Romans 12:1AMP

This is what it means to be a believer:  self sacrifice. To God first and then to everyone else around you.  To serve.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  Matthew 16:24-26ESV

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13KJV

When you finally realize that you have nothing, that you own nothing, that you know nothing and that everything is meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1), that the only thing you can give is your life to Him, then you will be able to live life.  Then you will have life and have life more abundantly (John 10:10).  

#devotional #prodigalpastor #sacrifice #heart #life #servant #contrite #worship