Thursday, August 7th, 2025
Let me start by being honest. I love getting good bargains. I especially love getting things for free. Goodwill lets kids pick out a kid’s book for free (we have quite the collection). My husband and I have a pretty good eye for finding free roadside treasures when we are out gallivanting. And there is nothing like a good BOGO sale at the grocery store. But getting something for free isn’t always a good thing. Let’s look at 2 Samuel 24:24:
24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
This is the passage of scripture where David ordered an unlawful census of Israel and Judah. The Lord did not instruct David to do this and it was a sign that David was trusting in the size of his army instead of his God. Once he realized his sin, David chose his punishment of a three-day plague. The Bible says that 70,000 men of the people died. That’s a costly sin. In order to stop the plague, David was instructed to build an altar and offer sacrifices. Araunah wanted to give these things to king David for free, but here is where our above verse comes in.
Too often in life we want to get away without paying our dues. We want the best jobs, the best houses, and the best families, but when it comes to doing the work to attain these things we may not be as committed. We want the promises of God, the fulfillment of our prophecies, healing and deliverance, but we sort of glaze over the requirements that come before the “and then”. We hope other people will hand us what we want or that we will marry the person that will take care of our every need, but we miss the still whisper that beckons from the secret place.
Final Thoughts…
The key to living our best life is aligning ourselves with all that God asks of us and desires for us. That is going to cost us something. It’s going to cost us the time that is being pulled in many other directions. It is going to cost us the money that we could spend in many other places. It is going to cost us the tears that fall when we realize that we are not where we could be. It is going to cost us the breath and the energy to declare that list of peace scriptures when everything in our body is shaking in fear. It is going to cost us surrendering whatever we think we need or want to the One who holds the keys to the best version of both of those things. Denying ourselves, crucifying our flesh and taking up our cross daily are requirements to follow Jesus. If we try to follow Him without doing these things our love will be cheap and our faith will be fickle.