“But I am afflicted and in pain; let
your salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a
song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than
an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who
are prisoners.” (Psalm 69:29-33, ESV)
We feel a fearful awkwardness when we
approach our God when we have no offerings to bring to the altar. We know we should come with an offering to
Him. We know we should be thankful and worshipful. We know our Father has watched over us. We know His grace and favor have kept us. We
know He has redeemed and saved us. We think and feel that should be approaching
Him with a sense of joy for all He has done for us but instead we stand with no
offering to bring because our hands are full of packages of sadness and heaviness.
We have an overwhelming sense of
heaviness with all our cares we are concerned with. We have so many burdens and are anxious about
so many more. Standing there with no
offering to bring to our generous Father, we now at these moments add the package
of guilt to our overflowing load. Our minds struggle as we feel shame now weighing
and pressing down on all we are feeling.
At the moments of our deepest struggles,
Our Gracious Father in heaven is not need our ritualistic offerings nor is concerned
with our feeble attempts to force words of gratitude from our broken hearts
thanking Him for His love and favor … He is simply joyous in our need for Him
and His love. Standing at the altar with
no offering in our hands is a desperate acknowledgment of our need for Him. We are closer to Him in those moments than
any other time in our life. Our Father’s
love, comfort and grace is after all why we come to the altar in the first
place. Coming to Him when we have no
words to say and no offering to bring, is coming to our Father needing Him to
supply our deepest needs. Crying out to Him when we have nothing, is crying out
to Him because we need Him. He meets us right
there in all our affliction and pain through His Son and His Spirit to revive
us with love and grace as He lifts us up by His loving arms to His caring
presence.
Suggested Daily Reading … Psalm 69
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