Articles
Righteous Sacrifice on Our Walk With Christ
Productivity has become a preferred unit of measurement when determining a person’s success and value. Therefore, multitasking has become a desired and sought after character trait in our modern age. David Strayer is a professor of neuroscience and cognition at the University of Utah. His research shows that “multitasking” is really deactivating our brain from processing one task so that we can shift our attention to another. As people who can habitually multitask, are we ultimately shifting our focus from God during our worship?
Worshipping God includes our Biblically ordained rituals (such as partaking of the Lord’s Supper) as well as sacrifice. Romans 12:1 explains that our whole being should be used in an acceptable manner to Christ toward our spiritual worship. The Bible shows us an example of a worthy sacrifice to God in 1 Samuel 24:18-25. Earlier in 1 Samuel 24, God struck pestilence down on the people of Israel because King David had sinned. Thus, David is instructed to build an altar on Araunah, the Jebusite’s land, and make a sacrifice to God as a symbol of atonement. After the king arrived onto the land, Araunah told him to simply take what was pleasing in his sight and wished him well. However, David replied, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (1 Sam. 24:24 ESV). God saw David’s commitment and accepted his offerings, therefore ending the plagues. Whether it be our time, money, or energy, in order for a sacrifice to be pleasing to God it must cost us something and be done with a genuine motivation to glorify Him.
Genuine motivation requires dedication and focus. During their 40 years in the desert, the ancient Israelites would sometimes lose their genuine motivation for God. False Idols (like the golden calf) would take their focus from God and trials of the desert would cause them to lose their dedication to their walk with Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:6 says that, “these things took place for us , that we might not desire evil as they did” (ESV). 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 warns Christians today to be vigilant in their faith because simply being baptized and walking with Christ isn’t enough. All the Israelites were baptized under Moses and followed God, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:5) Malachi 1:6-14 tells us that one of the reasons for God’s displeasure with Israel is because of their polluted and unrighteous sacrifices. Would God be displeased with the way we use our time, money, energy, and other sacrifices during our worship? What can you do to make your sacrifices more pleasing to God?
