Daily EncouragementSample

“This desire” is the desire to give willingly to God. “I have seen with joy,” says David, “how willingly your people who are here have given to you” (1 Chron. 29:17). The occasion was the giving of gifts for the temple which Solomon was to build, and this passage was part of the prayer which David offered at that time.

“This desire” to give willingly to God springs from a recognition of who God is and who we are. He alone is to be worshipped, and all that we have and are originate in him. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours” (1 Chron. 29:11). Without his grace, our situation is hopeless: “We are aliens and strangers in your sight . . . Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope” (1 Chron. 29:15). Our desire to give is a response to his grace.

“This desire” is the essence of loyalty and true worship. The appeal of the New Testament apostle echoes the prayer of the Old Testament king: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).