Giving Up Sacrifice

I’m thinking about the term “sacrifice”. I’ve read the dictionary definition before, and it simply says “to give something valuable”. I guess for us humans, being beings of limited means, that pretty nearly always means giving up some of that means, so I guess that’s where the colloquial definition came from. But when you think about it, our God is a holy God, and should be given only our best. So that makes me think of all the times I’ve put a ton of work into something, only to have that thing fail somehow. Good thing it wasn’t something that was supposed to go to God, huh? But wouldn’t He accept it, seeing as how I’d worked so hard on it, “sacrificing” so much time and effort for it?

Here in America, fast work is the best work. That’s the kind that gets you noticed by the boss, the kind he likes. But in Heaven, I get the feeling that the rules are different. See cuz God looks at the heart. God would be a tough boss to please, if He knew you weren’t 100% devoted to Him and His Business. I think a lot of what we Christians “sacrifice” may only follow the colloquial definition — “giving to the point of near or total depletion”, or “going without something you like or need to have”, and never quite touch the dictionary definition. Impossible? Have you ever worked hard on something stupid, just for fun? Or maybe worked long and hard on something whose completion becomes impossible for one reason or another, or spent a ton of money (or money you really didn’t have that you could spend) on something frivolous, or on something risky that you ended up losing that money on? Many people have written about the dangers of giving so-called “valuable” things to God — precious metals and stones, money, animals, children and other material possessions — without any actual effort involved. God doesn’t like empty gift boxes. But I think that this concept gets ignored in its inversity. And, furthermore, I think that there is more danger, especially in “mega-churches”, of the inverse being the case, what with all of their programs, events, and various departments being run by a whopping 20% of the congregation. I believe that this, to God, is like being given a gift (or a part of a gift) wrapped in a Wal*Mart bag, with the price tag still on.

True Sacrificial Giving is really more like when King Solomon lavished gifts on the Queen of Sheba, instead of when the poor widow spoken of in the gospel accounts of Mark and Luke gave her last two coins in the offering. Sometimes it hurts to give the 10% tithe that the Lord commanded of us, especially when our society, yelling and shoving, tries to intimidate us into coughing up even our lunch money. And I also believe that it’s a very commendable thing in the Kingdom of Heaven when someone is willing to completely deplete themselves for (to) the Lord. But if we want to offer a real sacrifice to our God, it has to be something that has intrinsic value on its own. And, of course, it has to be valuable enough to impress Him in order to bless Him.

So where’s a human going to get something that will impress God? Nothing on Earth would do. And certainly nothing that comes from within ourselves would work, either (sin-soaked beings that we are on our own). Scripture says that even our righteousness is just a bunch of filthy rags to God. So where do we get something that will actually bless Him? From Him, and only from Him.

The stirring we feel inside to reach for something (sadly, in many cases, anything) comes from Him. The knowledge of the direction to reach in (“faith”) comes from Him. And anything and everything of any real worth that our reaching hands might be holding out for Him to take can only come from Him. Kinda puts a new spin on offering up a “sacrifice of praise”, doesn’t it? It’s like we can be warehouses and distributors of Heavenly Goods!

Praise God!