I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull. (Psalm 69:30-31)
Society today demands that our workers and students invest a lot of time in their material pursuits before they can achieve their goals. These pursuits consume not only time, but energy. Pulled into this tide, we naturally become exhausted and our other responsibilities take a back seat. We are able to devote only the remaining scraps of our energy to fulfilling our fundamental obligation as Christians to worship God.
As a result, we feel pushed to find alternatives to offering our devoted worship to God. We may substitute monetary or other material offerings for worship time, thinking that we have correctly pleased God. But if we were to read the verse above, we would realize that our priorities have been wrongly placed.
The psalmist tells us that God delights in song and thanksgiving more than the offering of animal sacrifices. In fact, he is trying to tell us that God desires our heartfelt offerings of worship over any material offering we can make. God wants us to have the right priorities in our relationship with Him. He knows that a strong relationship with Him rests on more than just material tribute. Our weakness lies in failing to realize that our personal relationship with God depends heavily on worshipping Him from our hearts.
We need to adjust our way of life and apply our Christian priorities in the correct manner. Let us give God what He really wants from us—let us give to God our hearts in worship and fulfill our most basic responsibility as believers first. Then when we offer our material possessions, we can be assured that He will be fully pleased with them. Our God loves us so much and has much He would like to share with us. He desires to give us peace, to strengthen us, to provide us with guidance and rest. Only if we come before Him and spend time with Him will we receive these, and be able to continue forward, and offer even more.
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