Ezra 7:15-16 and whereas you are to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem; and whereas all the silver and gold that you may find in all the province of Babylon, along with the freewill offering of the people and the priests, are to be freely offered for the house of their God in Jerusalem;

Greetings Rose Buddy!

Initially, this post was intended to be published last Saturday. After much frustration, anger, and tears I decided to shelve it with no publish date in mind. While still very much aggravated, I ask God is He the reason I am having so much difficulty? At first, I thought it was this dark force of opposition coming against me. However, while wiping my tears it was starting to become clear to me. God stopped this because He is concerned about my offering. Here I am writing a post about what an acceptable offering looks like to God and He is unmoved and unimpressed. Ouch! There was this dual work happening where I felt the sting of correction yet still experienced the Love from where it stemmed. My Heavenly Father will always care more about fellowship than works even when it is intended for Him. This is the danger of thinking we are doing The Lord’s Work while leaving God out of the process. The process looks like setting aside time to spend intimately with our Divine Dad. Our works for the kingdom should be a result of our alone time with God. Faith without works is dead just as well as works without fellowship is futile. Which introduces the well delayed Ornament for this week – My Offering. Is our offering to God acceptable or deceptive? Has our offering stayed the same, increased, or declined this year with the extra time we’ve been given? Where has our offering went if it wasn’t given to God? Did we allow hard times to cause us to tarnish our offering? Do we even know what it means to give an acceptable offering to God?

Believe it or not I am still in the book of Ezra for those who remember the Uninvited Guest series. As I’m studying, I am instantly convicted. The reference verses displayed what they considered suitable offerings to God. They gave the finest of gifts from gold to unblemished bullocks. It was made clear this was the standard and anything less than this was considered unusable. Which answers one of the questions I presented earlier regarding what is an offering? An offering, in this context, is what we give in reverence, humility, and honor to God. What and how we show contribution to God is very important. Since Jesus gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, as believers we give our lives as an offering to God. Putting a scope to our own lives, we should make this the tone when we give. God has given and continues to give His best towards us even when we aren’t our best in Him. His standard never changes. His excellency remains consistent which should cause us to gratefully offer Him our best. How smooth our life is going should not be the measuring stick for what we offer to The Lord. We offer with humility and gratitude because of His Character not because of what we can get out of Him. God is good and we say this so often that I believe we forget the perfection in His Goodness. So much so that it sadly trickles down to our giving when we face hard times. God is not looking for perfection. An unblemished offering says more about our hearts than our works. Which is why this pertains to ornaments. There are plenty who give for show and recognition from man without reverencing God.

This speaks to my next question, does our offering change when we face difficulties in life? Sadly, we can all say yes. At some point and time we succumb to our seemingly pitiful surroundings and the party follows suit – pity party that is. At any rate, we should be spiritually aware and understand being a Christian does not stop trials from happening. It definitely does not stop God’s Power, Love, and Peace from reigning in our lives. When we keep this tucked in our hearts we are able through God to give a suitable offering even in hard times. God’s Power is not just in Him taking us out of trouble, but it also rests in Him sustaining us in trouble. Remember the sustainable Power of God for the Hebrew boys? He didn’t stop the king from throwing them in the fire. What He did do was sustain them while being tossed in a furnace that was meant to take them out. This year and in our lives in general we have faced furnace situations that was meant to take us out. The reason we are still here is enough to give a sacrificial offering to God. This offering is again our lives. A life that is given to please Him. Each day we get closer to the return of Jesus. In His Word it speaks of men turning from the faith, being lovers of themselves, and taking on the falsehood form of godliness while denying its true power. We have to make sure we are not in this number of people. This is achieved when we model what David spoke when He said, “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” In order for our offering to be right our hearts have to be purified and postured towards God.

As I come to a close with this series of ornaments, I hope you were able to take inventory in your own life of when you tend to decorate the outer you while leaving the inner work undone. It’s not about dressing like a Christian, sounding like a Christian, or resembling a Christian. If you want to be a Christian then just do that. Just be a Christian. Being exists in living and truly living that out has to be a lifestyle. We can’t pick and choose when we want to be one or who we want to be one around. Our lifestyle is our offering! What we offer to God matters and I can guarantee you He is not pleased in a decorated sacrifice that is implicitly detached from our hearts.

Heavenly Father, thank You for always having us in mind. The scriptures speak of You being mindful of us and even in times like these we pray not to forget Your Word is still true. As we give thanks to You this holiday season, let it be known what we have not only received from You, but offered to You as well. Continue to highlight, correct, and prune us from every fleshly desire that can contaminate our offering. We repent of ever giving less than our very best in whatever range or scope that would be. Have mercy on us, Lord, and most all be pleased with our worship. It is in Jesus Name this prayer is sealed, thank God and Amen.

Okay! You know the drill. Scurry on over to watch the correlating video with this post. Til next time, PEACE! ✞シ