Offering To God
On this first Lord’s Day Sunday, in the tenth month of a fast declining year, we must face many a reality. We are not just facing the reality of a year that’s galloping on without detours, interruptions or delays, but we are facing the stark reality that we should be ready, prepared and vigilantly watching and waiting for the coming of our Lord. We want to be ready, as time marches on and with each new day, we are to be even surer, of our relationship with our heavenly Father.
Indeed, we know that we are Christians. We know that we have been saved by the precious blood of Jesus. We know and accept that His, is cleansing Blood, for the power of His Blood is able to make the vilest sinner clean. We have been assured that whosoever believes in Jesus, regardless of who that person is, as long as he or she, believes in Him, that person shall not perish, but have everlasting life. True, we can claim all this knowledge, but are we, in this present hour, sure of our status and standing with our Lord?
There are some extremely uncomfortable passages of Scripture from which we stay clear. We know them, but we do not remember them, nor think about them. We want to be believers and worshippers of our God, according to us and not according to God. We do the works of God according to lawfulness and our own human desires and feel that our Lord will accept us and be pleased with us. God does not fight with us. He simply acts and speaks and we are left utterly helpless and powerless.
Our God, who is our Heavenly Father, does not delight in any offerings which we bring to Him, whether in our prayers, our praise, our worship, our talk or any responses we make to Him, when we are stubbornly disobedient to Him. Here are some uncomfortable words of God, most awakening words, as they help us to see that God is not mocked, neither is He One to be trifled with.
These are but a few words which God speaks to His children, the Israelites, as they continue to be a most disrespectful people to Him. A prophecy: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. Malachi 1: 1. Among the many things God has said, we hear Him saying this. Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you, says the LORD Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands. Malachi 1: 10. They have broken covenant with the Lord. Their worship is faulty, their sacrifices are blemished and God’s Name is profaned. God will not receive anything from their hands. He wants nothing to do with His children, while they remain in this unrepentant state.
From these words of God, spoken though Malachi, God’s messenger, many facts can he plucked. When we hear about the temple doors being shut, we are able to ascertain this fact. At present, the temple doors are open. If the temple is also a place of prayer, then our Lord wants the open doors to prayer, closed, so that worshippers will not enter the place of prayer, to anger Him any further. God does not appreciate anyone lighting useless fires on His altar. What do, useless fires, mean for us? I have been show that as praying people, the fires we light with our prayers are useless, for, says the LORD Almighty, I am not pleased with you. If our heavenly Father is not pleased with us, how do we expect Him to accept our prayers? I will accept no offering from your hands, is what He clearly states.
If prayer is an offering which we bring before God, then what are our prayers like? During this week, we look and learn from Paul, a child of God, a temple of the Lord, whose prayers to God, reflect God in stubborn faith and steadfast submission. We are choosing just one instance of prayer and through it, we will be brought to an understanding of prayer that will change how we think about God and prayer.
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