Part 1:
1 Samuel 15:22
“Then Samuel said:
‘Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings as much as in obeying the LORD?
Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.'”
The Lord had given specific instructions to King Saul, and he had not obeyed. In this disobedience, the Lord did not honor Saul as the King appointed over Israel any longer. He would appoint a man after His own heart, one who would fear the Lord and love and honor Him above all else: David.
David himself later says something similar in the Psalms later on:
“You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; You are not pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken and spirit. God, you will not despise a broken and humbled heart.” Psalm 51:16-17
Even though this passage in Psalm 51 is the chapter of recorded repentance David prayed to the Lord after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and THEN killed her husband..
His HEART was about being in right standing before the Lord. David knew the weight and beauty of salvation and knowing the Lord, and he cried out to God not to forsake him because of his sin. Contrast this with the reaction of King Saul when Samuel confronts his disobedience to the Lord in 1 Samuel 15:19-21. It seems to me David wanted fellowship with the Lord, and Saul was fearing the people instead of the Lord, wanting to maintain his kingship. Both had done wrong in the sight of the Lord, but the attitude of David’s heart was one of repentance and confession, not simply being sorry for what was lost to him outwardly like King Saul. Saul in this chapter even refers to the Lord when speaking with Samuel as “the Lord YOUR God.” He didn’t even claim the LORD as his own God any longer.
So where’s the application of this in my own life and in yours? There are SO many things the Lord has taught me in these scriptures about repentance, sacrifice, and obedience. For time and space’s sake, I just wanted to share a little about what practical obedience has looked like on the race thus far.
As for me, sure, it’s great that I’m here on the race. I made some sacrifices to be part of this, and I know in the past I have put people on pedestals for what I see on the outside of their lives: what they’ve given up, moving to Rwanda and selling all possessions, etc etc. Those are BEAUTIFUL movements that glorify God and are so worshipful to Him.
Yet, I’m learning more and more that the Lord takes pleasure in even the smallest acts of obedience. The choices you make when no one is watching, the ways you die to yourself that no one but the Lord could ever know about, the stepping out of your comfort to do what He’s asked of you simply because He asked it.
Living life on the race now, I see how I myself glamorized this trip (which is far more than a missions trip) even when I told myself I wouldn’t. I somehow expected to become this spiritual superstar! That I would become this ever-joyful, always passionate, bold proclaimer of Jesus in the streets! Sweeping up babies in my arms and changing the world! So very funny… I had some of my own glory in mind, I think.
I am still the same broken, messy girl who left America almost 5 months ago, positioning myself before the Lord to be pruned and broken down so that only what pleases the Lord remains in me, so that I stop living for myself and my own selfish gain and actually love the world and offer hope to these people He loves!
At the root of how I want to CHOOSE to walk in love every day is a willingness to say “yes” to the Lord. “Yes” to washing that stack of dirty dishes my teammate has neglected. “Yes” to saying ‘hi’ to a complete stranger who I’m not even sure will be able to speak English because the Lord wants to tell them He loves them. “Yes” to setting my mind on the Lord first thing in the morning and reading His Word even when I don’t feel like it. And let’s be honest, I don’t say “yes” a lot of the time! But the Lord is changing my heart and mind to want what He wants and to see the depth of how He wants to love the people in this world and draw them to Himself.
In these “yeses,” the Lord is accomplishing His plans for us and for those around us. We may never know the impact of the smallest choice to do what is hard and inconvenient and uncomfortable, and that’s okay. Obedience pleases the Lord. Our active response to what He asks shows our TRUST in Him, that even if we don’t understand why He asks of us what He does, we know well enough about Him to know He is good and has good purpose behind all these things.
Like in the story of Abraham: God promised a child. God had promised him descendants that outnumbered the stars. Abraham believed God, “hoping against hope” that it would come to pass, and it was credited to him as righteousness. When the Lord came through on this promise and enabled Sarah to have a child, what joy and amazement must have overwhelmed them both! What they thought impossible, God made possible.
And then, this same miracle-working God asked Abraham the unthinkable: to sacrifice his own son on an altar! Scripture doesn’t mention the emotions Abraham walked through. It only mentions that he is swift to obey. (see Genesis 22) What inner turmoil must have plagued him!! This, his only miracle baby, the only tangible proof that God would fulfill his promise to him, God was asking him to give up.
What?!
In our limited minds we might say: how?! God would never ask someone to really do that!!
But wouldn’t He? He called us to love Him with everything we are—all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. He wants us to grasp that! Don’t be surprised if God asks you to lay down some things that stand between your love for Him.
He challenged Abraham in his own faith and love for Him.
As we see in Genesis, whatever the cost to Abraham personally, He trusted God! He laid his son on an altar and was prepared to take his life as the Lord had commanded of him; at the same time, he laid down his understanding—what he could fathom in his own mind—and trusted God’s higher ways.
And in that surrender came the foreshadowing of the whole of God’s plan to make what He had promised come to pass. A foreshadowing of what He Himself was willing to do for all of us, those who would become part of that innumerable number of descendants for Abraham. The picture of a beloved, only Son and a Father’s willingness to lay his Son’s life down for a greater purpose. This was a foreshadowing of Jesus, laid down and sacrificed for us!
Here in this story, another sacrifice was provided. Abraham saw a goat nearby, and made a burnt offering there in place of his son. The Lord’s provision is perfect! And his ways are perfect. If we walked in this obedience, how would the Lord show up?! If we stepped out in seemingly blind faith, how would He proved and reveal His glory? How would He reach out and touch the world around us? Oh, how He wants to!
So be encouraged, that right where you are, you can give glory and honor to the Father in your obedience. It is the following of His voice and walking in step with the Spirit that impacts the world, for it is then in that obedience that we are seeking after the Lord’s own desires, actively doing what He wants to be done in the earth. These simple acts of obedience please the Lord more than drastic, outward sacrifice!!
Not that this obedience we must choose isn’t a sacrifice. It very much is. But what a blessing it is to obey in humility and in secret, knowing your Father sees you and His approval is enough. Be encouraged that this much more concealed sacrifice is beautiful in the sight of God and that it brings him pleasure. He delights to know and see we trust Him even if we don’t understand all the details.
Be encouraged that those small things no one sees, He sees. And He is accomplishing His will through you, and me, in any environment as we submit to Him and follow.
PART 2 of this obedience blog train is about the Lord asking me to be a little more bold in what He wanted of me a few weeks ago in Cambodia. Needless to say, I was a little scared, a lot skeptical of Him, and very surprised after all was said and done. Stay tuned for that story sooooon!
