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As I slept last night, I woke up slightly long enough for God to whisper a verse into my heart and show me some powerful truths found in that verse.
1 Samuel 15:22
“What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams."
What we as Christians often times do, is offer our sacrifices to God believing that they will make us right with Him.
We offer a sacrifice of our time. We may volunteer and put in our own hours to serve Him and the church. We believe this sacrifice of time puts us in better standing with Him.
We offer a sacrifice of our resources. We give our tithe or we give offerings to show that we are willing to sacrifice financially for Him. As we do this, we believe that the sacrifice of our money gives us an edge up on others not doing so.
We offer sacrifices of our talents. We use our gifts to be used in the church. We believe that when we offer our talents to be used for something spiritual, then we must be A-Okay with God.
The problem with us is the same problem with Saul in 1 Samuel. God specifically gave him commands to follow and he did not follow them. In spite of not following His commands, he convinced himself that all would be fine since he was offering these “pleasing” sacrifices. But God was not pleased.
This is why his sacrifices were not pleasing: Because he used his sacrifices to God as a way to appease his conscience of the knowledge that he was willingly choosing to sin against Him. The sacrifices he gave to God helped him not feel guilty about the sin he was committing against Him.
God responded by telling him that it is his obedience that He desires not the sacrifices he makes to ease his own conscience. He told him that He wanted his submission to His will and commands that he was fully aware of, not the excess of what didn’t really cost him anything in the first place.
It’s easy to spend some hours helping out at church. It’s easy to write a check. It’s easy to use a talent that you are already naturally gifted at. What’s not easy is obeying even when your flesh is crying out for you to gratify it. What’s not easy is choosing to obey God in a painful situation when all your flesh wants is to run directly into the darkness lying before it. What’s not easy is your body or mind wanting something so strongly and your spirit telling it, “NO! It’s God’s will, not mine”. This is obedience. This is pleasing to God.
I can’t let the comfortable sacrifices I give to God serve as a covering for the guilt and repentance I should be experiencing for my sin.
Father, I have withheld my obedience from You time and time again, because I somehow think that the sacrifices I make for You will make my sin okay. I have deceived myself into thinking that my obedience is not as important as my service to You. Please forgive me for sinning against You and putting my own desires above obedience to Your commands. Obeying You is far more important than offering You my comfortable excess.