Cover to Cover
Reading: 1 Chronicles 26:20-29:30
Focus: 1 Chronicles 29:6-18
There is this dynamic between friends that you’ll go out for coffee and one friend will pay for coffee one time, then the next time the other friend will pay. It goes back and forth and you lose track of who has paid for who…and in the end, it becomes of little consequence. We give and take with little concern between friends, yet every time we are still just as grateful for the generosity of our friends.
While the dynamic may be similar, the significance is a lot greater when it comes to God—that is, He is the source of all our provisions, not merely one who is generous. At the end of David’s reign when he declared before his court the plans for the Temple, the leaders responded with a generous freewill offering for the grand building project. At this David rejoiced, but David was quick to recognise that even in this generosity, its source was God Himself.
It is humbling when we come and remember that all that we have belongs to God. Beyond that, our offerings are not a “repayment” for God’s blessing, rather a desire to bless, honour and glorify God by recognising that He is the One who has blessed us and provided for us. David, also, connects offering in his prayer with a desire to live out the purposes of God. The heart which gives generously to God is the heart which loves God, just as friends are generous flowing from the friendship they share.
Next Reading: Psalms 1-8
