From Here

 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. 2 Samuel 24:24

Singer, speaker, and author Sheila Walsh tells a story from her younger years in Scotland. An evangelist had come to town and conducted his meeting in a large tent. At the beginning of the final night of his meetings, he announced that all who wished to be healed, would be by the conclusion of the service. People eagerly crowded the platform, seeking healing. At the end of the service, the evangelist exited the stage and was quickly ushered to a waiting car which took him away. Slowly the crowd dispersed until only two people were left; Walsh and a man named John. John had been in a wheelchair ever since a terrible accident had crippled him some years before. She knew if anyone would have desired healing, it would be John. He was still in his chair. She approached him with tears in her eyes, disappointed for him, and angry at the evangelist for making a promise he obviously didn't and wasn't able to keep. As she came to him, John looked up, saw her tears and said, "Sheila, I know the Father can heal me at any time He would choose. Until He does, I can worship Him from here." Worship Him from here. From his chair. A chair he would never have chosen. A chair that he could have allowed to be his prison. A chair that was instead, an altar to worship His God.

I'm deeply convicted by this story. Just as I'm convicted every time I read the Scripture from 2 Samuel. David the king wanted to build an altar to God. Araunah, who owned the threshing floor that would be the site of the altar and the oxen to be sacrificed, wanted to give it to him at no cost, because he was the king. David refused, for he would not give to his God a costless sacrifice. How many of us possess that same spirit? How many of us could speak the words of John if it were us sitting in the wheelchair? How many of us could worship Him "from here," if "here" was a location we didn't choose, and wouldn't want?

How we must cheapen our worship of Him by all the unworthy attitudes we bring before Him in our "acts of worship." How many complaints do we bear, most of them petty, when we come before Him? We come with such a spirit of entitlement. He has promised abundant life, but this part of our life doesn't seem abundant at all. Why? And more, what will He do to change it? We're willing to worship Him, but not "from here." Not from whatever we see as our own "wheelchair." And all the while we're blind to what an offense that is to the God of all things. Unlike David, and John, we're very willing to offer to Him worship and sacrifice that costs us little or nothing.

Where is your and my "from here" place today? Are we able to worship Him there? Can we trust Him for what isn't in our lives, and worship Him for who and what He is? Can we worship Him in the darkness, the pain, the unknown? From the place we never wanted to be, don't deserve to be, and unless and until He acts, will continue to be? Can we worship Him when it costs us everything to do so?

I never cease to be appalled at the casual approach to worship we have in the western church. We don't seem to know how to prepare for worship, let alone worship itself. We're relying on praise teams and atmosphere instead of the glory and wonder of His Presence. More, we're led by our moods and emotions rather than the reality of who He is. Father, forgive us, we know not what we do. Or maybe we do know what we do. Let us turn from our worthless worship and take on the heart and spirit of David and John. Let us worship Him from here, wherever here is. Such worship will never be rejected. How much of what we've been calling worship has been?

Blessings,

Pastor O