Have You Told Him Lately?

Psalm 50:1-15

English Standard Version (ESV)

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

50 ^(B)The Mighty One, God the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth
    ^(C)from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, ^(D)the perfection of beauty,
    ^(E)God shines forth.

³ Our God comes; he ^(F)does not keep silence;^[a]
    before him is a devouring ^(G)fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
^4 (H)He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made ^(I)a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
^6 (J)The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for ^(K)God himself is judge! Selah

^7 (L)“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    ^(M)I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices ^(N)do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
^11 (O)I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    ^(P)for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
^14 (Q)Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^[b]
    and ^(R)perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and ^(S)call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will ^(T)deliver you, and you shall ^(U)glorify me.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2050:%201%20-%2015&version=ESV

Have you ever received a gift from your child?  Maybe it was a drawing that you put on the refrigerator or some dandelions that you put in a vase on the table.  Although very sweet, you didn’t need them.  Maybe at Christmas time they gave you a gift that they earned with their own money and you felt just a little guilty that your child would spend their hard earned money on you.  The greatest gift that I have received from my children is a simple “I love you” or a cry in the night because they trusted me to help them.  I may have simplified this passage to human standards but I as I read this passage it came to me that our Heavenly Father doesn’t need bulls, rams, or even pigeons to know that we love Him.   Just like we don’t need gifts from our children to know they love us.  It is not the sacrifice of the animal that He was looking for when He spoke of sacrifices.  He doesn’t need us to perform great and mighty acts but He wants us to love Him.  He wants our praise, our adoration, our undivided attention, and most of all He wants our love.  I can’t think of a more precious moment than a time when randomly I heard those sweet words come from a child’s mouth, “Mom, I love you”.  Or a time when my children wrote in a card, how much I meant to them.  How much more precious are those words to our Creator, God our Father, yes, He wants our praise. 

Next time you wonder if you are doing enough for the Lord, stop and evaluate where your heart is and ask yourself, “When was the last time I told Him I loved Him?”.  When you seek Him, be sure to give Him the praise that only He is worthy of.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila