POLLUTED OFFERINGS
“You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,” Says the LORD of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” Says the LORD.” (Malachi 1:13 NKJV)
God does not accept just any thing we offer to Him in worship. God is a Great and a Holy King; and not a beggar who accepts and celebrates whatever anyone throws at him. Under the old covenant, when the sacrificial system was God’s established way of worship, God gave specific specifications of the offerings and sacrifices He would accept from His people in worship. If God would not accept any offering with any blemish or defect under the old covenant, we should not expect Him to receive such polluted and imperfect offerings from us under the better and more glorious covenant.
Giving our tithes and offerings is an integral part of our worship to God as the New Testament believers. You should not worship God just only with the fruits of your lips, but also with the fruits of your labours – your money. It is God’s commandments that you bring your tithes and offerings to His house, and also to give to His servants and to the poor, the widows, and the orphans. God would not accept your offerings or gifts if you have not absolutely surrendered yourself to Him. It is first your soul that God seeks to have on His altar before anything else. Secondly, whatever you give to God out of compulsion and not willingly and cheerfully; God would not accept it.
Thirdly, though your pastor may not care about the source of what you bring to the altar, God cares. If your tithes, seeds or offerings are gains from sinful, ungodly and unlawful practices or businesses; God would never accept them from you. God delights only in pure offerings – what you bring willingly and cheerfully to God from the fruits of your lawful labour or work after you have given your soul to Him. It is only pure offerings that attract God’s blessings; impure and imperfect offerings only attract His curse. Enough of presenting polluted offerings on God’s altar, thus, provoking God and invoking His curse upon yourself.
Father Lord, forgive me today for presenting to you polluted and imperfect offerings in the past; turn today every curse I have thus brought upon myself into blessings, in Jesus’ name. Amen
Liberation thought: I will give holy and acceptable sacrifice to God
Further reading: Genesis 4
Prayer:
Oh Lord forgive me the sin of polluted offering that I may have offered unto you, whether in my worship, substance or service
Turn every curse I may have brought upon myself into blessing in Jesus mighty name
amen