But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. 2 Samuel 24:24
A sacrifice involves the giving up of something that is valuable to you. Value and sacrifice run in the same direction. The greater the value of what you give up, the greater the sacrifice you are making. When it comes to honoring dignitaries, even a poor person knows to give the best that he has. Your sacrifice is a measure of how much you value the individual.
David valued God very much and will not offer Him a sacrifice that cost him nothing. God also did the same to show how much He valued human beings. He gave us His only Son. Now this is an incredible sacrifice. If God can value sinners like us this much, how much should we value God? Let us admit it. We do not value God much at all and so we do not make valuable sacrifices to Him. How? We give Him our left-over time, left over change, we even serve Him only when it is convenient for us. We refuse to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. We fail to deny ourselves and take up our crosses everyday and follow Him; etc., etc.
Suppose God decides today not to give you His best, how will you fare? Are you sacrificing your absolute best for the Lord?
