Good Friday morning! Smoked the coffee grinder yesterday; not sure what to do about it today. I can't think without my coffee! Good thing I drink decaf, otherwise I might be snoozing on my keyboard too. I will sacrifice my coffee drinking for a day or two. Did you ever think of thanksgiving as a sacrifice? Of course the holiday is a sacrifice if you are the one who must do all the cooking and cleaning. But how about just the normal, everyday thanking God for his blessings? I present to you Psalm 50:23 - The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" Hmm, God says that giving thanks is a sacrifice.
I don't usually think of gratitude as a sacrifice to God. However, when you think of what must be set aside the sacrifice becomes more clear. It seems to me that pride cannot exist with thanksgiving. The proud will thank only themselves and will boast about how they don't need God. The humble Christ-one will offer up his sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. If a person is wealthy, even moderately so, it becomes easy to have pride and thank no one. A person who brings a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God knows that she is dependent upon God's provision and that wealth is not something she can depend on.
You could also say that an apology is a sacrifice in much the same way. Pride cannot exist in a proper apology. If I say the wrong thing to a brother in Christ, then I must humble myself and go to him with my apology. Humility, thanksgiving, and even love can all be sacrifices to God. Why love? Jesus said something very much like: Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends. We call it sacrificial love to separate it from the many watered-down definitions of love we have today. When we look at it in that way, I think all of the fruits of the Spirit are a sacrifice pleasing to God. Love, joy, peace, patience, and all the others involve giving up our natural tendency to the opposite. If you speak the truth it is a sacrifice of your natural desire to lie. Making peace is a sacrifice of the natural desire to seek vengeance or escalate a conflict. Giving thanks to God says, "I need you, Lord!" when we want to be self-sufficient. Yes, I can see the sacrificial aspect when I listen to what the Spirit tells me!
Bring your sacrifice to God this day. Give up a nice offering of thanksgiving!
Bucky
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