Daily Devotions

To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. In fact Proverbs 21:3 tells us "Obedience is better than sacrifice."

This is another theme that crops up in the Bible repeatedly - especially among the prophets - is that God doesn’t want religious sacrifices from stiff-necked and disobedient people. What truly brings the Lord joy is righteousness and justice.

Paul in Romans 12:1-2 explains the nature of true loving  sacrifice with this advice,  “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (The Message)

What does that look like for you? First, think about who you are; identify the different things that make you who you are. 

For me, it looks like the following: I’m a father, grandfather, brother, a son, an uncle, minister, small, friend, husband, former College principal, a mentor, a composer, and a musician. These are just a few of the different roles that make me, me. 

Then, there is my personality and all the different ways it works within these roles…and I haven’t even mentioned the resources that God has given me. All of this makes me distinctly me. Throughout today I will operate within at least one of these capacities. 

Paul said that I should offer it all to God as a “living sacrifice”! Why? Because it is Holy and pleasing to the Lord! Everything I do in all the different capacities of my life are to be done for His Glory.

In deep gratitude for all that You have done for us we offer ourselves and our gifts to You—living sacrifices of worship and praise. Transform our hearts and minds from the inside out; show us what is good and pleasing in Your sight, so that we may be quick to recognise Your call, and quick to respond. In the name of Jesus, our Messiah and Lord, Amen.