Devotion Corner
Psalm 54:6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.
Our Heavenly Father did not force His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. The Lord Jesus obeyed the will of the Father, with a full willingness to step forward and become sin in our place, so that through His shed blood, we might be cleansed from our sins. This willing fulfilment of the will of the Father by the Son, was foreshadowed in the obedience of Issac towards the faith led actions of Abraham. Issac did not resist the ties to bind him ready for his sacrificing before God. Instead, he obeyed in fullness of trust that God would indeed provide, just as his father Abraham had said moments prior. As we all know, God did provide, just as Abraham rightly believed He would.
Yet when we are called to sacrifice something in our lives, so that the will of God may be honoured, we will often drag our heels and resist. Indeed, sometimes we will even refuse to obey the request of God. Yet we will still deceive ourselves into thinking He will accept our praise, even when we have reluctantly and grudgingly moved to obey His will. We refuse to truly trust that His will is good for us, and so our sacrifices in His name are not done in freeness of heart. That freeness that reflects the free gift of grace, Christ Jesus gives us through His obedience to the will of the Father.
So, we are to remind ourselves, that we may be called to sacrifice things in life to honour the will of God. We cannot pretend to give Him true praise and glorify His name, if we do not give freely unto the fulfilling of His perfect will. We must do so freely, without counting the cost, for this shows a true trust of His wondrous goodness. Such an act is the true act of praise filled worship, and this fuels a heart to be filled with experience led praise of the goodness of God. In doing so, we are brought ever nearer to God, all so that we might see the wonder of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for our sins, with ever deeper thankfulness and reverence. Amen.
