Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Heard it a million times probably.
Never truly stopped and thought about it until the Lord hit me on the head with it.
Thankful He loves me enough to get my attention.
Throughout time God has used the foolish, crazy things to test man's faith, to shore up his obedience, not because He wants us to fail, but because the testing of our faith strengthens it. God wants us to be able to have faith in our own faith in Him. He wants to remove our faith in all the other things we so easily lean upon such as money, family, possessions, knowledge, etc. This brings a whole new level to Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."
God sometimes speaks to us and tells us exactly what to do, but in our own humanity, we have a better way, forgetting His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are higher, even when they make absolutely no sense at all, which they usually don't! God generally uses our plans as a way to show us how it won't work!
Look at the story of Abraham and Isaac. God called Abraham by name. There was no doubt to whom God was speaking. When Abraham answered, "Here I am.", God told him to take his only son and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on a mountain He would show him. The bible further shows us that this was a test of Abraham's obedience. Isaac was never to be the sacrifice. The OBEDIENCE of Abraham was the sacrifice. However Abraham did not know that for sure. His faith in God caused Him to believe that God had a plan, but the bible does not tell us that Abraham had any indication that God did not intend for him to follow through with the burnt offering plan. Abraham was obedient even to the binding of his son upon the altar. He passed the test.
Then there was Moses, who chose to elaborate on the commandment of God. God told him to speak to the rock, but Moses got all dramatic and hit it twice. He wanted a show! God was not pleased and the bible even tells us God was dishonored in Moses' action. , Because of this disobedience, Moses was not allowed to experience the promise. Those he led were allowed to ride into the Promised Land on the back of Moses disobedient sacrifice! The ultimate fail.
The following experience I am sharing at this point is not something I prefer to share. However, in obedience, I share it. I do hope that others will be able to more clearly hear what God is speaking to them, through me sharing my own long term act of disobedience.
For several years God has gently prodded me to get up early in the morning and pray. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am not a morning person... at all! If early morning came about noon time I would be most happy. Not that I sleep till noon, I don't, but I generally am slow going till around 10:00. It is not that I hate mornings, it is just that my body and mind do not work together for a couple hours after I wake up and I generally feel awful. I enjoy getting up around 8:30 -9:00 and drinking a quiet cup of coffee. On my days off I like to go out on the patio and read or write for thirty minutes or so and then go pray for a bit. On my work days I get to work around 10 and like to read the bible and pray for a few minutes to start my day. Infrequently, I have gotten up and prayed a little earlier than normal, but I have never made it habit to do so.
A few months back a young lady in our church shared with me her story of God prodding her to get up early and pray, and her obedience to do so, no matter what faced her that day.
As she began to share with me, I wanted to tell her to hush. I knew where this was going, and why she was sharing this particular experience with me. More of God's prodding. Time went on and I did not heed to the almost daily bidding of God to get up at a certain time and pray. I flat out did not want to do it. So as a special offering to Him I would give Him my lunchtime. I work at the church and the guys usually go to lunch around the same time all together. I had that time alone, in the church, down at the altar that I would give to God. What a wonderful sacrifice that would be! How proud I felt of myself knowing God would be so pleased with my offering. Ha! I have definitely had some wonderful prayer times alone with God during that time and He always met me there. I have experienced His most amazing presence many times over the past several years. I made a commitment to daily offer Him this extra sacrifice.
Time passed and I faithfully offered up my daily "sacrifice" of praise. Soon the time came when I began to earnestly pray for a particular promise I had been given, that has yet to be fulfilled. I approached the promise from every angle possible in prayer. I used Praise, Petition, Thanksgiving, tried The Prayer Wheel, groanings that could not be uttered! You know the drill! I became more and more frustrated in my prayer and never felt I had reached that place the Lord was trying to get me to. I could not feel His touch, I could not hear His voice.
After a most frustrating day wrestling with this unfulfilled promise, I headed back down to the altar offering up my sacrifice once again! On that day God met me in the most peculiar way, by the absence of His presence. I walked and prayed, praised and prayed, cried and prayed, ... nothing.
I began to pray a prayer of repentance. I repented for everything I did, thought of doing, and didn't do just in case! I was led by God from my repentance into asking for forgiveness for letting the fleshly desires of this vessel clutter my soul. When I began to pray in that way, He met me with the force of a gale and began speaking to me. He began to reveal to me the main clutters in my life and how they were stealing my promise. Just as Moses' disobedience had stolen the Promise from him, mine was doing equal damage. My manipulation tactics were not going to work with God. They had become filthy rags of my selfish unrighteousness, and it was as if He was saying to me, "Get those stinking things out of my face, I do not want your idea of sacrifice, I want obedience." In that moment I laid down all my silly self-sacrifices and made a commitment to wholeheartedly OBEY His voice.
I did not just make a commitment, I put action to my commitment. I realized God meant business, so I got down to business! I set my alarm for 7:am (His time!) I knew it would be difficult and I would most likely submit to my snooze, so I set it for 5 minute intervals! I put a special prayer inducing song as my alarm sound, I wrote the words "Prayer; Obedience" so that when I look at that alarm those words stare me in the face. The first morning I woke up, went into my closet (His place) ready to pray. Excited even. Second morning the same thing. Third morning ... not so much, Fourth...stumbled into my closet and fell before Him in tears! The next few days after that were just pitiful. But I remained true to my commitment. I obeyed daily His voice. While I sometimes still have my noon time prayer, I remain to this day faithful to the time He chose and the place He chose.
I will admit at times my prayers are void of my own understanding, but I am acknowledging Him in my obedience and that is the way to my promise. I have more than once fallen asleep in my closet. I have trouble in the small space getting up and down, and have more than once gotten stuck in a very painful position. It doesn't seem like my thoughts form together and make much sense, but I have noticed I don't spend the time asking for things. My prayer is mostly filled with thanks and praise and Him speaking thoughts and assurances to me. I leave from these times assured that He is with me no matter what the day brings. I know in my obedience He is bringing my promise to fulfillment. I have a greater faith in Him than ever before, and when I need Him, it as if He is at my beck and call! The things He has called me to do I feel equipped for. When I am attacked by insecurity, inadequacy, abandonment, loneliness, His voice resounds, guiding me back into His security. Through this obedience, I have learned to instantly recognize the sound of His voice.
He has recently been speaking to me to read the Bible the very last thing I do at night before I fall asleep. I am obedient. On the nights when I forget, or if after I read the Bible, I read something else, I usually awaken way too early and have fitful sleep. On the nights I do it right, I sleep through the night with no interruption. I don't know the reason why He has asked these simple changes, but I trust Him. Completely! The things He asks of us may not make sense, but He doesn't owe us an explanation. He owes us NOTHING! We owe Him EVERYTHING. The least we can do is listen to His voice and honor Him with obedience. My obedience is very sacrificial, trust me. Much more than the so-called sacrifices I had been offering up. Usually the things we choose to "sacrifice" are not really all that hard for us. We offer a "fast" for a couple of meals, and think we have really done some great sacrifice, then we break that fast by eating enough for two meals. We commit to pray thirty minutes, and watch the clock like it is restraining us from our day. We wonder why we are not reaching the lost. We wonder why this feeling of frustration and lack of fulfillment. Our vessel is so clogged with our fleshly desires, that our sacrifice has become nothing sacrificial, and our prayer cannot flow as necessary.
We must lay aside the weight. This requires a physical act. We have to put away, remove every hindrance and be obedient to His voice no matter how crazy it may sound! It seems to me He would much more enjoy my eloquent prayer at noon rather than my mumblings at an hour when I am not coherent. But it is obedience He wants, and obedience He shall have!
While I do not believe He is necessarily requiring this same commitment from others,I do know if you will examine your heart you will find there is something that He is leading you to do as an act of obedience. Maybe I am the only one who has had a struggle being obedient, but I really doubt it! If you are struggling in your prayer life, if you have things that are weighing on you, that you cannot seem to pray through to the answer, try just listening to His voice and, with sincerity, see if there be some thing He is asking of you that you have not yet given. Just obey, it's much easier than ignoring His voice!
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