Costly Sacrifice

1 Chronicles 20

22 David said to Araunah, “Let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price. Then I will build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague.”

23 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the threshing boards for wood to build a fire on the altar, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you.”

24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”

David understood the value of making a sacrifice to God. Such a sacrifice comes with a cost, and when Araunah offers to give David the threshing floor where David wants to offer sacrifices to the Lord, David refuses. He asks to pay the fair price, knowing that it is not right to give something to the Lord that didn’t cost him anything. How often do we want to “give” something to God that didn’t cost us anything? Far too often. May my life be marked by willing, cheerful, costly sacrifices that proclaim His glory, honor and praise.