A Pleasing Sacrifice

 A Pleasing Sacrifice.

God has placed the need to worship Him in the hearts of His creation. In longing for God, man tends to stray following the desire of his own heart and follow a way not pleasing to God. We desire to follow traditions and acts of worship or devotion placing those acts in higher regard than what is required of us in our walk of faith. I tend to think of how the Israelites strayed many times away from God, they followed other gods and gave worship as the pagan nations did. This devotion to other gods angered the one True Living God and brought calamity to the nation and so it still does within our singular and national lives today.

In our heart we still desire to perform “acts of worship” in that, we desire to go before an alter and offer sacrifices or follow various traditions such as spiritual rites and specific repeated prayers. Man has in him the need to draw closer to His creator, and in trying we fall into worship that is not pleasing to God but to demons (1 Corinthians 10:20, Deuteronomy 32:16-17, Psalm 106:37, 1 Timothy 4:1).

Let us consider how we offer worship before our Lord; is it pleasing to Him or to ourselves; fulfilling our own longing through prideful acts, or acts that tend to knock off items or devotions on a check list? Has our worship become a dutiful obedience done out of repetition, or does our worship service and help others, or does it temporarily fulfill our own needs?

Looking into the Word of God, we find what is pleasing to God in our service and devotion to Him. Psalm 50: 23 – “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me: and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God”. Our thanksgiving is a powerful way in which to offer worship to our God, our very thanksgiving is considered a “sacrifice” and an “offering” to God, along with how we order, or live out our lives.

Renew your mind with the following scriptures on what is pleasing to God –

1 Peter 2: 5 – You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Romans 12: 1 – Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Mark 12:33 – And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Matthew 9: 13 – But go and learn what this means: “I desire compassion, and Not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

1 Samuel 15:22 - . . . Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.

Isaiah 1: 17 – Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

James 1:27 – Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Giving to the care of widows, orphans, and the sojourner – Deuteronomy 14:29, 16:11, 24:20 and 26:12.

Hebrews 13: 15 – 16, Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

As from the above scriptures, let us review what is pleasing to God: Not sacrifices of blood, but of the heart - To take care after widows, orphans, and the sojourner, to seek justice and reprove the ruthless, to give up our thanksgiving and praises from our hearts and lips to cry out onto Him who is Holy.

I urge you Beloved to “Consider This” - how do you offer up worship to our Lord God, do you align your heart and thus your actions to what God says pleases Him. If you desire to go before an altar, do so. But also, do not forget to do good unto your neighbor, for we should be devoted to one another in love, honoring one another above ourselves (Romans 12:10), and By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).