Monday, January 6, 2014

SACRIFICE OF PRAISE by David Ritter


How often do we say or sing the scripture, “We bring the sacrifice of Praise” without realizing the depth of what we are saying?  Webster says, to sacrifice is to “suffer loss of, give up, renounce, or destroy especially for an ideal, belief, or end.”  Is the sacrifice we bring really giving up something?

A sacrifice of praise will cost us something.  When King David was offered (for free) a large piece of land to offer his sacrifices, he quickly said, “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.”  In the context of a worship service, when does it become a sacrifice for us?  When we are asked to stand, do we sit?  When we are sick or don’t feel like worshipping, do we worship anyway?  When we are uncomfortable or embarrassed to come forward for an altar response, do we put our pride aside and come forward?  Or, when we don’t like the songs, do we sing them with all of our hearts, regardless?  Do we go to rehearsals when we are dead tired?  If we do these things, even when our mind and body rebel against them, then we have experienced a sacrifice of praise because they cost us something.  And, it’s during the “Sacrifice” that we encounter God...how much more so when the attitude of the heart is right, and the “Gift” is offered in Spirit and in Truth!  Amen! 

No comments:

Post a Comment