Costly love
12 October 2026|Papa God & Denae Roth
True love is costly. True love is surrender. True love is picking up your cross. Daily. Are we willing to have true love for Jesus? A couple mornings ago, I was nearing the end of my morning devotions when the Lord directed me to 2 Samuel 24:18-25 where the Lord commands David to build him an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah. Back up one chapter David took a census of Israel and Judah which displeased the Lord, and he sent a plague over the land killing 70,000 people. David was desperate. He begged God to let his anger fall on him instead of the people. God's answer, “Go up and build an altar.”
Obediently, David goes up to Araunah's threshing floor saying, “I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so he will stop the plague.” Araunah replied, “Take it, my lord and king, and use it as you wish…I will give it all to you.” Oh that this would be our heart's posture to the Lord. Take it my Lord, take my life, my heart, my soul, my mind, take all of me and use it as you wish. This threshing floor was Araunah's livelihood, but selflessly he was willing to give up for the king's purpose. Our King has a purpose for us, a purpose over each and every one of our lives if we are willing to surrender to his way. If we are willing to say, “Take it my Lord, and King, use it as you wish,” we will see Him do things we never thought were possible. What an honor that he WANTS to work through us! He WANTS to use us in the kingdom! What are you willing to give up for the King's purpose over your life?
“But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No I insist on buying it for I will not present a burnt offering to the Lord my God that has cost me nothing.” 2 Sam. 24:24. That hit me. All throughout the bible we see what true love, worship and sacrifice looks like; Abraham and Isaac, Daniel and the lions den, Esther going before the king, the women with anointing Jesus feet and so many more. It's costly. “Where there is true, strong love for Jesus it will cost us something. Love is the costliest of all undertakings. But what shall we mind if we gain Christ? You cannot give up for him without regaining everything you have renounced, but purified and transfigured.” F.B. Meyer. I couldn’t say it any better than that. Love is costly because it's kind, not boastful, not proud, not irritable, all the things our flesh wants to be, love is not. We have to surrender our flesh. Some people it costs them their lives to love Jesus, it costs us our pride, our comfortability, our dreams, our ambition. Sometimes it costs us things that aren’t bad, but also aren’t necessary. It's called pruning, making room for more of Jesus.
What is so beautiful to me is as I was researching about this passage I learned that this threshing floor was built on Mount Moriah. The place where Abraham went to offer the costly sacrifice of his son to the Lord. But the Lord provided. And again on Mount Moriah in 2 Samuel 24 we see the Lord providing for David, “And the Lord answered his prayer for the land and the plague on Israel was stopped.” The last part of what Meyer wrote is so true, “You cannot give up for him without regaining everything you have renounced, but purified and transfigured.” The sacrifice feels costly in the moment, and it is. But it's also a pleasing aroma to the Father, and as he sees our worship he gives back to us with blessings that are, "Pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” Abundant. What an awesome God.
Mount Moriah was also the location of the first temple built by Solomon. Here's what's amazing about that to me, David did not get to build the temple physically, but he laid the most important foundation. The foundation of surrender, worship and honoring the King of Kings. Our worship and sacrifice to the Lord lays foundations for generations. My challenge to me and to you is to give Him the love that cost us. Saying take my life, my Lord and King and watching as he uses our lives to change the Kingdom and lay foundations for generations to come.