april 15, 2008 chapel
A Sacrifice of Praise
"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." - Hebrews 13:15-16
Sometimes we don’t feel like praising God. Or we don’t feel like “looking at the bright side”. Or we don’t feel like recognizing that God is working in our lives through the things that seem painful to us. Or we don’t bother to dwell on who God is and who we are before Him. Life becomes more and more about us and about how we feel and what we want.... which is all just a lie. That’s NOT what life is all about – and although we say that with our heads, we don’t acknowledge it with our lives.
So what is this “sacrifice of praise” that we are commanded to continually offer to God? If I openly profess his name, then the product of my life needs to be praise – even when it hurts. Even when it’s not comfortable. Even when everyone else says something very different. Even when I’m not treated fairly. Even when I mess up.
If it were easy, God wouldn’t have called it a SACRIFICE.
What am I sacrificing? In order to continually offer praise to God – and by that, I do not just mean the words of praise, or the statements about how great God is, or the songs that honor His name – I mean to offer to Him the literal, physical, constant act of praise through obedience. Not obedience to a set of rules, or even verses, but the obedience that comes from the mind; the obedience that takes God at His word and BELIEVES that what He says – ALL of what He says – is absolutely, one hundred percent true. And if it is absolutely true, then it must govern every area of my life..... my use of time, my use of money, my words, my thoughts, my priorities, my friendships, the way I treat others and put their needs/desires before my own.....and on and on.
Too often, we take God’s sacrifice for us for granted. We really want Him to do all sorts of things for us, as if that were the purpose for His existence. We’ve got it all backwards. We exist for HIM. We study for HIM. We play for HIM. We sing for HIM. We cook, clean, wash clothes... for HIM. We think of others first – for HIM. Our actions in all these areas of life should come from hearts that are so grateful for the salvation that we so undeservedly have been given, that there is nothing that anyone can do to us, and nothing that can come to pass in our lives, that can steal our joy.
Every moment that we are not reflecting Jesus is a wasted moment. It happens when we – through our own selfishness – put a blanket of sin over His presence so it is not able to shine out of our lives. The only way to pull that cover off is to recognize and confess that sin, to turn our backs on it and allow God to wash it away. He will restore the quality of our “mirror” and make it possible for Jesus to shine through us.
Suggested Reading: Romans 12
-- Bev Sparling
[emphasis added]
"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." - Hebrews 13:15-16
Sometimes we don’t feel like praising God. Or we don’t feel like “looking at the bright side”. Or we don’t feel like recognizing that God is working in our lives through the things that seem painful to us. Or we don’t bother to dwell on who God is and who we are before Him. Life becomes more and more about us and about how we feel and what we want.... which is all just a lie. That’s NOT what life is all about – and although we say that with our heads, we don’t acknowledge it with our lives.
So what is this “sacrifice of praise” that we are commanded to continually offer to God? If I openly profess his name, then the product of my life needs to be praise – even when it hurts. Even when it’s not comfortable. Even when everyone else says something very different. Even when I’m not treated fairly. Even when I mess up.
If it were easy, God wouldn’t have called it a SACRIFICE.
What am I sacrificing? In order to continually offer praise to God – and by that, I do not just mean the words of praise, or the statements about how great God is, or the songs that honor His name – I mean to offer to Him the literal, physical, constant act of praise through obedience. Not obedience to a set of rules, or even verses, but the obedience that comes from the mind; the obedience that takes God at His word and BELIEVES that what He says – ALL of what He says – is absolutely, one hundred percent true. And if it is absolutely true, then it must govern every area of my life..... my use of time, my use of money, my words, my thoughts, my priorities, my friendships, the way I treat others and put their needs/desires before my own.....and on and on.
Too often, we take God’s sacrifice for us for granted. We really want Him to do all sorts of things for us, as if that were the purpose for His existence. We’ve got it all backwards. We exist for HIM. We study for HIM. We play for HIM. We sing for HIM. We cook, clean, wash clothes... for HIM. We think of others first – for HIM. Our actions in all these areas of life should come from hearts that are so grateful for the salvation that we so undeservedly have been given, that there is nothing that anyone can do to us, and nothing that can come to pass in our lives, that can steal our joy.
Every moment that we are not reflecting Jesus is a wasted moment. It happens when we – through our own selfishness – put a blanket of sin over His presence so it is not able to shine out of our lives. The only way to pull that cover off is to recognize and confess that sin, to turn our backs on it and allow God to wash it away. He will restore the quality of our “mirror” and make it possible for Jesus to shine through us.
Suggested Reading: Romans 12
-- Bev Sparling
[emphasis added]
posted by melilotnfosco | 11:59 PM
10 Comments:
Wow, that's tough stuff. But good (I see why you couldn't shorten it;)! I liked (& could really relate to) this part: "Life becomes more and more about us and about how we feel and what we want.... which is all just a lie." What a relief that it's not about me and how I feel and what I want. I need help believing that though, of course...
me too. it's just so easy to get mired down in this muck of an every day life. i need to see the bigger picture (GOD's plans) and the smaller picture (the beautiful little details HE places here for us).
also, i profess HIS name. how dare i not represent HIM well! i was caught again the other day when the cook commented that one of the housekeepers is always smiling. he noticed that. which means he's noticing that i don't. which hurts, but is 100% my own fault.
and 'Every moment that we are not reflecting Jesus is a wasted moment' kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. ouch.
why, oh why, can i never apply these things!?
i hear that! but i also think that we don't have to necessarily be always smiling (not trying to let you off the hook; just don't think we need to always be that way if God didn't design us that way -- it takes all kinds, after all!) we're here to be witnesses/ambassadors, and not everyone can relate to people who smile all the time (for example) -- again, i think we could probably both be doing better there, but we can also still be us, i think :) -- boy, i hope that made sense! ;)
it did :)
i just know that i can't always relate to people who are always smiling ;)
yes certainly. You don't have to be a smiley person. If life sucks, smiling is just fake.
It's not our personal effort that will make changes in our lives. No matter how hard we try, we can not be good. We can not, on our own accord, give God even a tiny bit of the adoration and glory that HE deserves. It is only through prayer and opening our lives to HIS work, that any change can happen. And.. He promises that then the change WILL happen!!! Hurray!
I need to remember all of this more often!
hey - i was going to say
"'Every moment that we are not reflecting Jesus is a wasted moment' - ouch!"
yeah
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