Sacrifice.
It’s a strong word that often conjures up Biblical images of animals laying on fires. It’s something that was required of people many years ago but is no longer the definition that Christians live by.
While reading the Bible, I noticed a major difference in how sacrifices are described.
In Psalm 51:16-17, David says, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
David says in Psalm 54:6, “I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name for it is good.”
These seem to completely contradict each other. It threw me through a loop. What does God want of me?! Does He desire that I don’t bring offerings anymore? Does He not find any joy in them? Or does He desire for me to be constantly pouring out my freewill offerings to Him?
In the end, it all comes down to the same thing. The Lord doesn’t desire sacrifices because of the sacrifice. He’s always, always after the heart behind it. His deepest desire is for our hearts to be for Him. He wants to know each of us deeply and intimately. He wants us to sacrifice our hearts to Him freely and willingly.
This past month I’ve really been digging into what it means to fast things. In all honesty, before this, I didn’t understand fasting at all. I didn’t get why the Lord would give us so many good gifts just to call us away from them. So I tried it out. I spent 6 weeks fasting secular music. I was pretty skeptical of what good would come from it, but I figured there wasn’t much to lose. At times it was so tempting to turn on Ed Sheeran and drown out the world, but in those moments I grew the closest to the Lord. In those times of wanting comfort, I chose to run to God. Instead of choosing to ignore my hard feelings, I brought them to the Lord and got to seek His voice in them.
I came to the conclusion that the Lord can call us away from His good gifts so that we’re able to fully rely on His goodness and provision. Yes, He gives us good gifts. Yes, He rejoices in us finding joy in them. But it’s not about His gifts. It’s always about our hearts. It’s always about us following in obedience and being willing to sacrifice our comforts in order to seek more of the Lord.
**I’m only $1,325 away from my final goal!! That’s only 13 donations of $100 each. If you’re interested in helping me to continue being a missionary to the nations, please consider donating! I only have 9 days left, so be praying that this money comes in so that I’m able to stay on the field!!**
