This week, we released a new song, “Stake Your Claim.” Although this isn’t a new song to our gathering—we’ve been singing it for a couple years now—I hope it’s a gift for you to have it to guide your thoughts in prayer, carpool lines, and weekend house chores.
I wanted to take the opportunity to communicate a little bit of the heart and meaning behind this song. “Stake Your Claim” is a prayer of devotion. Devotion—in the context of prayer and other spiritual practices—is aligning our hearts and minds into unwavering loyalty or commitment (i.e. devotion) to God. Devotion in prayer means stepping into God’s presence, holding with open hands all we have—our thoughts, our affections, our will, our plans—laying them at the feet of the Lord, and asking him to line them up rightly to his will.
Habakkuk 2:14 tells us that a day is coming when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This is the telos, the final state, of this world we live in, and it’s the calling of every believer to be ushering in that day this day. In the song’s bridge, we recite Habakkuk 2:14, and we—in anticipation for that day—offer all of our lives to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). The conclusion of the chorus is the headline of this idea: “My life for your fame.”
That is a big offering and a big calling. It requires the commitment of our money, time, energy, planning, and imaginations. That can feel overwhelming. So much to do, so much to plan, so much to give, and so much that is unforeseeable and uncontrollable to us. But, let this be both a comfort and a warning to you: The offering God wants from you begins small. It begins in the secret places: “Let my thoughts be a fragrance to you. Let my heart be an altar for you.”
In the Bible, burnt offerings unto God are described repeatedly as having a fragrant, or “pleasing” aroma. This language harkens back to the sacrifices of Abel, Noah, Abraham, and the priests of Israel. But there are many instances of God not being pleased with sacrifices: Cain, Saul, and the people’s sacrifices scorned by God throughout the prophets. Jesus even warns his disciples that many will do great things in his name and be turned away on the last day. Why? Because, right sacrifice comes from hearts aligned with God’s.
Perhaps no passage of scripture states this more clearly than Psalm 51:16–17: “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
The offering of everything we have begins with the offering of what is inside of us. It must. What kingdom fruit and impact would we see in our lives—multiplied throughout our church body—if these words became our prayer to the Lord when we rise each morning and when we lie down each evening?
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14
