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!

Don't Believe The Hype!

Till this day, I love hearing my mom tell this story: 

(En español of course) Once upon a time there was this little boy who was born with a heart murmur and spent a week in an incubator due to a respiratory illness during birth.  When he was six months old, this little boy was sick with a throat ache/infection. His mom gave him penicillin to cure the throat ache/infection not knowing the little boy was allergic to this drug. The little boy stopped breathing, eyes turned in his eyelids and his skin turned blue – not a good thing. In a panic, the little boy’s mom grab the boy and called (more like screamed) at her husband who was in the shower. With a towel around his waist, the husband comes out of the shower, snatches the boy from his wife’s hands and orders her and the rest of the kids to begin to pray. He carried his baby boy into his room and kneels down at his bedside praying to God to revive his little boy. With the mom and the rest of the kids crying and praying in the background, he prayed for what seemed to be an eternity. Eventually, this man of faith brings out his handsome baby boy back to the rest of the family. His color was back to normal and he was healthier than before this incident.

That little boy was me. And while this story should serve as an encouragement to me, for a long time I struggled with lies of the enemy insisting that I should have remain dead. Every failure, every time I felt weak, and every opportunity he could use, I would hear “you shouldn’t be alive right now” “God wanted you dead” “What was your dad thinking praying for you?” “That’s why you are going through so much stuff”. I even heard a few “you should end it now” thoughts!

One night while I was struggling with these lies, I got down on my knees and prayed to God. He gave me a “glimpse” of my father kneeling down on his bed praying for me. Then God reminded me:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

You see I had heard that verse before but that night it made complete sense! I hope it does for you, too!

What lies is the enemy telling you? “You don’t fit in” “you don’t belong” “you should end your life”? Whatever it is…Don’t believe the hype! God has “greater” plans for you!