Starving God

 Are you starving God? I know that's an odd question, but it came to me as I was reading in Numbers yesterday. (No, it's not my favorite OT book either.) In 28:2, God tells Moses, "Give these instructions to the people of Israel. The offerings you present to Me by fire on the altar are My food, and they are very pleasing to Me." I know that this is the Old Testament and that we no longer perform this daily ritual, at least not literally. Yet, we do, even in the New Covenant, bring Him our offerings. Romans 12:1 calling us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice bears that out. We don't bring daily offerings of meat and grain to be burned upon His altar, but we do bring the offering of ourselves and all that we are and do, and they are still to be burned up upon His altar. Our God is a consuming fire. And they are still very pleasing to Him. Unless they're not.

In the Old Covenant before Christ, these offerings were a part of life, and symbolized the dedication and surrender of the people. That was the time of the Law and we now live under and in His grace. But that doesn't mean we have ceased to be called to bring Him our choice offerings, and what could be more "choice" than our own lives? Lives that we bring to His altar each day. Lives filled with needs, choices, desires, ambitions, and challenges. Lives that His Word tells us are not our own, but His. Lives brought to Him, surrendered to Him, and yielded to His holy consuming fire. Fire that may, and often does, burn up something that may be very precious to us.

In the midst of any day or week we're likely to be wrestling with something. Maybe many things. Marriage, family, work, finances, relationships, ministries. A host of circumstances and choices. What do we do with them? Do we continue to wrestle with them, or do we at the first, bring them to Him as an offering? Placing them on His altar, in surrender, to Him and to His fire. Before you answer, let me say you won't be able to without first bringing Him the ultimate offering....yourself. Until you have, placing your self life on His altar, allowing Him to consume you along with all your desires, hopes, and plans, you'll never be able to bring all these other things related to your life. You may have your daily "devotions," but it will mainly be a ritual, which is what this daily offering became in the life of Israel. The reality of what it represented was lost to the nation, and because of that, they were overcome time and again by their enemies. So too will we be when our offerings to Him are more ritual than reality. The Israelites just went through the motions. Are we guilty of the same? 

So I get back to my original question. If our offerings are His food, do they leave Him hungry? Is what we offer Him in the end, not only tasteless but useless? What do we really bring to His altar, and in the end, what do we really leave there? As we live before Him, is He starving?

Blessings,
Pastor O