Today we are beginning a comparison between Obedience & Sacrifice. What does God desire from us? We will look at this from several different angles. Okay, so let’s define our terms. The root word of obedience is ‘obey’. To obey is to “carry out or fulfill a command, order, or instruction; to comply.” Obedience is “dutiful or submissive behavior”. A sacrifice can be defined as, “a symbolic offering of something to a deity”. Now thinking about what we just learned, do you think God, who needs nothing, would rather have some sort of symbolic gift instead of our obeying His well-defined statutes found in the Bible. Mankind has a problem with submission of any kind. Generally speaking, we all would love to be autonomous, taking the proverbial bull by the horns and make our own way. But reality will tell us that a guiding hand is needed. That guiding hand ought to be Almighty God.
1 Samuel 15:22, “What is more pleasing to the Lord; your burnt offerings & sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”
Sacrifice is sometimes necessary, but not all the time. Scripture tells us in the verse just above that “obedience is better than sacrifice”. Obeying may involve some sort of sacrifice, but the main ingredient for Godly success is not sacrifice, but obedience to God and His Word. I think man has the false notion that the more he does, the more he sacrifices, the tighter he will be with God. It simply doesn’t work that way. Doing things for God with the proper motive is what we are supposed to be doing, but our doing doesn’t insure our end destination will be heaven unless we are selflessly, humbly doing it with no regard to self. That is true obedience and that is what God seeks from us. God doesn’t ask us to do things we are unable to do, for the Holy Spirit within enables us to do whatever God wishes us to do for the Kingdom. In other words, in and of ourselves we cannot do ANYTHING to please God, for our motive may not be pure. Notoriety has no place in a believers life if they are seeking it. Achieving it because of what God is doing and giving all the glory to Him is fine and if notoriety happens to come with that, then use that notoriety to lift Jesus UP and not yourself.
Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!
In His Name & for His Glory,
RL Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
No comments:
Post a Comment