Oswald reminded me this morning that nothing is too small to consider sacrificing for God.
Never discard a conviction. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, it is that thing He is detecting. You were looking for a great thing to give up. God is telling you of some tiny thing; but at the back of it there lies the central citadel of obstinacy: I will not give up my right to myself – the thing God intends you to give up if ever you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
It is not just the big sacrifices that count; it is the ones that God asks you to sacrifice. There are things we want to give up. Our hearts are stirred and we desire to do something big and then God calls us to something small: small and humbling. It reminds me of Naaman.
2 Kings 5:9-14
9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10 Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be clean.”
11 But Naaman got angry and left, saying, “I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and will wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. 12 Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and left in a rage.
13 But his servants approached and said to him,“My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean’?”14 So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the command of the man of God. Then his skin was restored and became like the skin of a small boy, and he was clean.
We have in our hearts big dreams and lavish displays of devotion that we imagine ourselves doing when all the while there is something we count as small and unimportant about which the Spirit is pressing us constantly. We are in no position to count the significance of the sacrifices we make. God asks you to give what He commands which may cost you the most cherished possession you cling on to with ferocity: your right to choose the scene of your own martyrdom.
We must die where He tells us to die.
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Then Samuel said:
Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
as much as in obeying the Lord?
Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,
to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
No comments:
Post a Comment