Matthew 2:11 (NKJV) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary, His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n These wise men were really wise. Although they had traveled all the way from the East to worship the King of the Jews, they knew they couldn\u2019t just worship without bringing gifts to the King. Now, it\u2019s not so much as meeting the need as much as the gesture of not coming empty-handed into the house of the King. And they brought gifts according to what they had, each unique from their places of origin; unique but very expensive and worthy to be presented to the King. This was true worship happening before the Baby King. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And therein lies a big lesson: Jesus does not really need anything physical we have or that we can bring. But because He is King, Jesus expects that special gifts must accompany our worship. So what treasures can we bring to Him that He will cherish? Is it our tithes and offerings? Is it our ministries and religious services? What can be of greatest pleasure to our King, if not the very gift of our lives? Our lives far outweigh anything else we can offer; because if He has our lives He owns everything else that proceeds from that life. Jesus is not satisfied with worship that is not accompanied by the surrendered life. Worship can be significant external displays of piety, but He wants more. Worship without the right accompanying gift is vanity of vanities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLord, help me not to join the train of loud external worshippers. Lord, help me present to You on my platter of pure worship; a broken and surrendered life. I don\u2019t have gold, frankincense or myrrh, but I have this life, and I offer it again, wholly and unreservedly, as my gift of worship. Lord, please accept this from me I pray. In Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 2:11 (NKJV) \u201cAnd when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary, His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.\u201d These wise men were really wise. Although they had traveled all the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t