In the devotional yesterday, we heard how the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. This can be said that the sacrifice that God accepts ought to come from a pure heart. This connotes giving God offerings from the heart that is not wicked. There is need to know that a wicked person is wicked in all his/her ways. Attributes of a wicked person is wickedness upon wickedness. We were told in yesterday’s devotional that “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD…” (Prov. 15: 8a NKJV). In today’s devotional, we are taking a look at giving offering of thanksgiving to God with hands which are clean. King David talked close to this in Psalm 26: 6 David said: “I will wash my hands in innocence; so I will go about your altar, O LORD, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of your wondrous works” (NKJV).
If God demands we give Him thanksgiving not from a sinful heart, we should not give Him thanksgiving from a wicked heart that controls the hands to deal wickedly with people. Our hearts and hands should be pure, clean and free from acts of wickedness at all time. As Christians, we are not meant to keep our hands clean from evil at convenient times but at all times just like praising Him without ceasing. If we are meant to give God thanks every day, we must learn how to keep our hands from wicked acts every day. One of the necessities for good thanksgiving is giving offerings of thanksgiving at the altar of God. Like David, we should be able to wash our hands clean in innocence. This implies keeping our hands away from evil things.
We can see how God stopped King David from building Him a Temple because his hands were full of blood (1 Chro. 22: 8). Christians and Christians leaders should look into the saying here with godly minds. One wonders how contaminated some of the offering gifts in the days of thanksgivings in churches will be rated by God. It will be difficult to identify monies, materials and items got from ritual sacrifices and other unclean sources. But this devotional believes that great works of commendation can be established if members of churches are taught not to bring materials, properties and monies acquired from evil sources for thanksgivings on thanksgiving days. Encouraging church members to give worthy thanksgivings from pure hearts and clean hands is likely to bless the church rather than filling church accounts with ritual monies. This is what Nigerians called “blood money”.
PRAYER:
O LORD GOD, let the Holy Spirit makes me know how to give offering from pure heart and clean hands. I desire that thanksgiving offering from me should be a blessing for me and for the church. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch