Are you willing to go to the next level? (2 Samuel 24:24)
Bzzzz…. Bzzzz…. Bzzzz The alarm clock goes off and we roll out of bed just in time to take a quick shower and hurry off to class. We come back from class around 10am and take our thirty minute break between classes to have our quiet time, reading our Bible and praying. Not that this is bad, it is definitely better to have a quiet time than not have one. However, if we are really serious about God maybe it is time to take it to the next level.
David was a man after God’s own heart. He had learned the secrets to living in the secret place. Here in 2 Samuel 24:24, he reveals one of those keys. David comes to set up an offering for taking a census when he was not directed by the Lord to do it. (2 Sam. 24: 1-10) Araunah offers to give King David his land and livestock for the offering. But David says to him that he would pay him for the land and offering because he believed in the spiritual principle of only giving to God that which cost him something.
In our culture of convenience, this flies in our face. We want things that reduce the amount of hard work, suffering, and sacrifice. But David had learned that the key to intimacy with God was the discipline of sacrifice. Sacrifice is an act of worship in which an offering is made to God with something belonging to the offerer (New International Dictionary of the Bible). When you feel discouraged and angry, you can offer to God praise as a sacrifice. It takes work to worship when you are in a bad mood, but the rewards are well worth it when the joy of the Lord fills you because you have been in the presence of the Lord. Your praise belongs to you, and you can choose to praise anger and discouragement while wallowing in self pity or offer your praise to God. Sacrifice is a choice. What choice will you make?
Have you found your prayer life a little dry lately and are desperate to hear God speak? If your answer is yes, then maybe you are willing to risk saying no to a couple late night activities and sacrifice some sleep to get up earlier to really press into the presence of God. Maybe you are contemplating what to do with your life, then I challenge you not to give out of convenience and go where they already have the gospel and revival is happening. Instead, hear the call to sacrifice your comfort so that others who have not heard the gospel may understand the comfort of knowing your Savior Jesus Christ. Maybe God is not calling you to sacrifice in either of these ways but Word of God contains many other references to sacrifices. I have listed a few below for you to study and see which discipline of sacrifice you will do this week.
1 Peter 2:5 “living stones are being built up … to offer up spiritual sacrifices”
Hebrews 13:15 “continually offer the sacrifice of praise”
Hebrews 13:16 “to do good and to share, with such sacrifices God is well pleased”
Romans 12: 1-2 “present your bodies as a living sacrifice”
Philippians 2:17 “poured out … on the sacrifice… of your faith”
Prayer Focus
1. Pray with other students and young adults who will gather in Denver and Los Angeles on November 1st and 15th for the release of multitudes of our generation who will go for at least two years to the places around the world where the least gospel witness exists.
2. Pray for the people of Northern India. That many of the believers in the south would catch the passion of God's heart to see their northern neighbors embrace the gospel and thus help to take it to them.
3. Pray that God would raise up 50 SVM2 Bands of Message Bearers - small groups of young adults committed to praying for the forgotten peoples of the world and for their generation to rise to the challenge of reaching them (see www.svm2.net for more info) throughout North America on campuses and in churches.
4. Pray for students on secular campuses throughout North America who fight constantly against the lie of universalism in their campus outreach. That the reality of hell and the greatness of Jesus Christ and His passion that "all people should be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4) will penetrate deeply into their hearts.
