A pleasing sacrifice
I joined a live concert online on Saturday, and as I sang along to a newly learnt song, I was struck by the words “a life that is pleasing to God”.
It took me back to a song that was sang in church a few weeks ago:
May the life that I live reflect Your glory
May the words that I speak honor Your name
May the thoughts that I think be pleasing unto You
May my life be a praise unto You Lord
A lifestyle of worship to fulfill Your holy purpose
To be pleasing and acceptable in Your sight
Nothing else can compare to living in Your perfect will
May my life be a praise unto You Lord
God help us to do this! 🙏🏽
May we allow God to permeate every fibre of our being so that we are living, breathing and walking testimonies of our Lord and God, living proof of what the Lord can do and evidence of His transforming power.
God can see right through all we are and all we do. He sees our motives, our hearts, our thoughts; He sees it all. We cannot deceive Him. Man may look at outward appearance, but our God looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7
Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, both brought offerings to God. The Lord looked with favour on Abel’s but not on Cain’s. Let’s see how the different offerings were described: Cain brought “some of the fruits of the soil”, whilst Abel brought “fat portions” from some of the “firstborn of his flock”.
I came across the following sacrifices that we can make as believers in response to Jesus’ sacrifice for us:
– Sacrifice of our lips.
Hebrews 13:15 NIV –
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
– Sacrifice of our lives
Romans 12:1 NIV –
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship
– Sacrifice of our “loot”.
Hebrews 13:16 NIV –
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
– Sacrifice of our love.
1 John 4:19 NIV –
We love because he first loved us.
As always, we cannot do this on our own; we need the Three Persons in One – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
We need by God’s grace to live focused, intentional lives.
We must remember daily that this world is not our home and that as stewards we will be called to give an account of our lives to our Maker.
May our lives be a pleasing sacrifice to our God who has given us by His own divine power all that we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
(2 Peter 1:3)
God bless you!
😊🙏🏽
