Saturday, March 14, 2009

Sacrifice as an expression of Gratitude

God gives us everything! We are indebted to Him for all creation and all sustaining of that creation. He asks a very small portion of his gift to us in return. This token is representative of His total gifts, but He takes it very seriously!

This is illustrated in Lev. 5.14-19 where sacrifice is to be made for failing to give God His Holy portion in worship.

We all know the disdain and disgust we feel for the unappreciative, spoiled, presumptuous attitudes of a child.

We’ve seen children making demands of parents. We’ve cringed at the actions of Dudley in Harry Potter, on the occasion of his birthday. "But there were more presents last year!"

But I have a daughter, Cait, who shows appreciation for the smallest of gifts. A couple weeks ago she was buying 3 books and was lacking some change to be able to pay the tax. I paid it for her and got a hug and a "thank you, Daddy"! Another day she bought me a soda!

We can either be like Dudley, or we can be like Cait!

When we hold back or give resentfully we are not only denying God what little token he asks, but we are ignoring the fact that it’s all His anyway!

What does it cost to give something of love to God or our neighbor...only what God has given us in the first place!

Let’s pray for each other to be able to recognize opportunities to give to God worshipfully, whether it be directly to Him or to our family and neighbors.

1 comment:

TerryB said...

Isn't it amazing how even the smallest expression of gratitude can change everything? And where it is absent, oh my.

I'm so sorry to hear about your eardrum. Ouch!