Devotionals

Offering

by Leona Mingo
06/19/26
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“Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard. Who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved.

For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals, with the sweet aroma of rams; I will offer bulls with goats. Selah” Psalms 66:8-15

“Oh, bless our God, you peoples!” You can hear the plea in the psalmist’s voice that God be given the honour that is His due. The voice of His praise should not be mute or barely audible but be heard loud and clear.

Next, he draws the peoples’ attention to what God has done for them; was not their being kept alive as a direct result of His gracious hand upon them? Their steadfast footing was only achieved because He is their foundation.

Their testing was viewed by the psalmist as only another example of His concern for their lives, in that He sought refinement in them that they would shine and be of great value in His eyes and in the eyes of others.

There is no shying away, by the psalmist, from what could be viewed as harsh dealings with God’s people, but neither is there a hint of bitterness or resentment in his voice. He knew that they had gone through fire and through water with its consuming burning and its threat of drowning but he also knew that they had come through it and now experienced the rich fulfillment that was prepared for them.

So, his next step is to go to worship; to make good any promises he had made to his God in moments of genuineness before Him. He wanted to offer back, in some small way, in worship as he reflected upon how much God had given him.

Because now, in Christ, I am encouraged to present my body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is my reasonable service (Romans 12:1) may I do so with the same zeal as the psalmist as he sacrificed in humble recognition of what God had done for him, by His grace and for His glory.