OBEDIENCE > sacrifice!

“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.” 1 Samuel 15:22

For the last few months this verse (well part of this verse) has been ringing in my head: “OBEDIENCE is better than sacrifice”. It sounds so pretty and righteous to say….but what exactly does it mean? That, my friend, is the million dollar question! You see this same phrase can mean different things to different people – God loves to do that! He can use the same message to speak to people in different ways.

For some:

OBEDIENCE = attending church for the first time & having a relationship with God

Sacrifice = thinking that being a good person is enough to please “God”

Others:

OBEDIENCE = getting involved in your church; use your gifts to serve in the house

Sacrifice = attending church is enough

Yet others:

OBEDIENCE = giving your tithes regularly to God

Sacrifice = giving to the people that ring the bell during Christmas is enough

I'm not sure what OBEDIENCE vs sacrifice looks like for you. You will have to figure that out on  your own. I can tell you that God is always looking to stretch our FAITH in one way or another.

 

For me it’s simple, yet difficult all in one…. this “blog” thing is very easy for me to do. I can sit here and write stories till my fingers turn blue…stories and writing (well not including grammar) come effortlessly to me. The difficult part is sending out the Twitter and Facebook reminders to my friends. You see it is out of character for me to ask people for things. It’s something my parents taught me when I was young and it has been instilled in my heart – perhaps to the extreme - or maybe this is just how God wired me. So when I felt from God to write these blogs, I was excited. When I felt from God to send it out several times a day – not so much!

Every week when I am about to send the blog out, I get this devil / angel fight on either shoulder. The conversation goes a little like this:

Devil: “who do you think you are to send out these blogs? You are not important!”

Angel: “you are a  son of the Most High, coheir with Christ!”

Devil: “people are gonna laugh at you…hahaha!”

Angel: “God is smiling down on you when you send it”

Devil: “this is dumb…a waste of time! You already do enough for God! Relax!”

Angel: “OBEDIENCE is better than sacrifice”

So when you see my Twitter / FB reminders, remember this:

OBEDIENCE > sacrifice!