There is a beautiful song by Third Day that has been close to my heart ever since the first time that I heard it. It's called, "Offering," and these are the lyrics:
Verse 1:
Magnificent, Holy Father
I stand in awe of all I see.
Of all the things You have created,
Still You choose to think of me.
And who am I, that You should suffer;
Your very life to set me free?
The only thing that I can give You
Is the life You gave to me.
Chorus:
This is my offering, dear Lord.
This is my offering, to You, God.
And I will give You my life
For it's all I have to give,
Because You gave Your life for me.
Verse 2:
I stand before You at this altar,
So many have given You more.
I may not have much I can offer,
Yet what I have is truly Yours.
Chorus:
I'm sure you can see why this song is so dear to me. It speaks quite plainly about what it is that we have to offer our Lord and Saviour. Regardless of how great we may think we are, regardless of how much we can possibly grow or how rich we may become, there is nothing that we have to offer God other than our lives.
We can worship Him, but our worship belongs to Him already because He is King of kings and Lord of lords according to Revelation 19:16 - "And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."
We can give our lives to Him, but He has already purchased them on Calvary, so even that is only what Paul calls "our reasonable service" in Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
Some people seem to believe that what they give in the offering plate is all that they need to offer to God, but even THOSE offerings belong to God. Malachi 3:8 says, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings."
There is absolutely nothing that we have that we could offer God. He owns it all! He deserves it all! So, we come around to the question in the title of this post: What Am I Offering?
What ARE you offering God? The song claims that what we have is truly His. Seeing as it all belongs to Him anyway, shouldn't we ensure that we aren't robbing the Lord by holding any part of our lives back? Shouldn't we make sure that we give Him absolutely everything?
I think that is one of the things that boggles my mind. People claim that they don't want to serve the Lord in such-and-such a ministry, yet their service belongs to the Lord! People decide to stay home from church because it's "their day to relax," yet the day itself belongs to God, and their service belongs to Him as well! People refuse to get "uncomfortable" for God, even though He bled and died for us!
People choose not to serve God, and instead choose to be pew warmers, but we are slaves of God. Romans 6:18 and 22 tells us, "And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.... But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life."
So the question remains: What Am I Offering? Am I at least offering what is my "reasonable service?" Am I offering at the very least, what belongs to God? Am I at least giving Him every aspect of my life, since He purchased it on the cross?
How about you?