November 27, 2021: A Willing Offering

“Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You” (1 Chron. 29:13–14, NKJV).

Near the end of his reign, King David assembled the people of Israel for what was one of his last public appearances. It was a praise service in which he recounted God’s providence and all the preparations made for the great work of building the temple of God. More than once, the Bible records that David and Israel’s leaders “offered willingly” to the Lord.

I am thankful that Scripture records David’s own words of blessing in 1 Chronicles 29. To the Lord belongs the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory and the majesty, and He reminds us that “both riches and honor come from You” (verse 12). What a picture of God!

But what really speaks to me is the shift that King David makes in verse 14: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this?” David understood that any service or offering rendered to God must come from a right perspective of our relationship to Him. Here was a man who felt his own deep unworthiness. It convicted me that, regardless of position or service, there is nothing as elevating as when I fall low before God.

The latter part of verse 14 is a reminder that all I am and possess is from the Lord. And what I have given to Him is simply returning a portion of what He has given to me.

Lord, I devote my treasures and service to You today. Amen.

John Rengifo is the associate pastor of Evangelism and Discipleship for the Atholton church in Maryland.