"Is Your All on the Altar?"
This morning in our devotions we read from Matthew 5:23-24, and I noticed something about these verses that I had not realized before. Let's read it together, and then we can talk about this:
23. "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24. Leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift."
Now, I always thought this was talking about bringing your "tithes", or money gifts to the altar...and that if you had anything wrong between you and your "brother", or any other person, you needed to take care of that before the Lord could accept your gift. But today my eyes were enlightened to look at this a little deeper.
Do you ever even think about bringing your "gift" to the altar when you come to church? Do you just put your offering in the plate when it is passed and not even think about the significance of that act...or the possibility that the Lord may not even accept that gift because of your "relationships" with others?
First of all, what exactly are the "gifts" that we bring to God's altar? If this is not just talking about our tithes, then what?
How about the gift of ourselves...our very being...our soul and heart?
Or how about our joys and sorrows? Could that be a "gift" to the Lord?
Our praises and words of thanksgiving to the Lord?
Perhaps our desire to be transformed...reconciled to the Lord Himself is a gift.
The gift of service to the Lord and to one another...the gift of our voices lifted up in song, praise, testimony, teaching, preaching...
Maybe we desire to be a better prayer warrior or counselor, a writer of encouragement to others, a better friend to others...
But these things we desire to give to the Lord...even for His honor and glory, cannot happen until we are reconciled to our "brother", or sister, mother, father, spouse, friend, child, neighbor....anyone we may have hurt or wronged in some way...or perhaps someone we need to forgive...whether or not they "deserve" to be forgiven.
Until we are able to lay our "all" on the altar, we will not be able to move forward in our walk with the Lord, or be able to do the things we so desire to do for Him, no matter how honorable our intentions.
Wow! I never looked at these verses quite this way before. Have you? Have you ever realized that perhaps all the things we long to do for the Lord and for others are not happening because we have not let go of our hurts and sorrows...our sin of an unforgiving heart? That grudge we may be nursing in our mind toward someone somewhere...possibly even someone we really don't even know...but we heard about them somewhere and decided to harbor resentment and hatred toward them? There's a lot of that going on these days...I don't need to elaborate....
As the Lord opened my eyes to these thoughts today, I found myself searching my own heart and examining the nooks and crannies of my internal being...and asking the Lord to turn on His searchlight and reveal to me those things I am holding onto that need to be "reconciled"...to anyone who fits that description above.
Here's a song that came to mind as the Lord was reminding me of these things:
"You have longed for sweet peace,
and for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
or be perfectly blest,
Until ALL on the altar is laid.
Chorus:
Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart, does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest
and have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.
Would you walk with the Lord
in the light of His Word,
and have peace and contentment alway?
You must do His sweet will
to be free from all ill;
On the altar your all you must lay.
(Chorus)
Oh, we never can know
what the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.
(Chorus)
Who can tell all the love
He will send from above!
Oh, how happy our hearts will be made!
Oh, what fellowship sweet
we shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid!"
(Chorus)
(Is Your All on the Altar? by Elisha A. Hoffman)
So...what about you? Did this open your eyes to some things that perhaps need to be taken care of before you can leave your gift on God's Altar? Sometimes we may think we don't have any "issues" against any of our "brothers or sisters"...and then the Lord helps us to see that we just might be in need of some "reconciliation"...even between ourselves and the Lord Himself...before we can move any further in that relationship.
I know I'm praying about this now...how about you?
