Righteous Sacrifices

Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭4:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬
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Whatever we do in our lives, we must do it with a righteous spirit. Anything we do with the wrong motive is unacceptable to God. God looks into the depths of our spirit and sees our motivations. We can appear to men as religious and devoted but God knows our true intent. Simply going through the motions doesn’t mean that we are righteous. Religious ritual and ceremony are empty and void without a heart that is right toward God. So many in churches of our time are going through their traditional, religious motions thinking that they have fulfilled their duty before God simply because they have attended a service, given an offering of some kind, sang along with a song, or recited a prayer. Brothers and sisters, let me be so bold as to say that it’s all meaningless if Jesus isn’t truly Lord of our hearts. Everything we do must be motivated out of our desire to please God. I’m not referring to trying to be good enough. We are not good enough. Let me be abundantly clear about one thing. Only Jesus can atone for our sins. We cannot please God with our attempts to save ourselves. We are inadequate to accomplish that. Jesus has accomplished salvation for those who come to God through Him (see John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:8-10; I Timothy 2:5; Titus 3:5). What I am referring to is a conscientiousness in all that we do, practically. Positionally, we are made right with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Practically, we must strive to please our Lord and Master. In everything we do, let us strive to honor and exalt Him. Serving God is an act of worship. Somehow, we have become confused about worship and serving. We have classified these two in separate categories. May I submit to you that they are in the same category. Worship isn’t a certain place and time at a building we call church. Yes, we gather corporately to worship as the local body of the church. We should be in this practice regularly. I believe in the assembly of the church.  (see Hebrews 10:25 and Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37). However, I believe we cannot separate worship from anything we do. Everything we do in life is a act of worship. In all that we do, we should be doing it for the glory of God.  “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:17‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Worship is truly on display when we are mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, working on our jobs, going to church, serving in positions within the church, loving our spouse, rearing our children, etc.. If we only “worship” when we go to a religious gathering, we have missed the boat. We should be worshiping all through the week. Then, when we gather corporately to worship, we will experience the genuine presence of God among us. God will be pleased! Let’s break out of our molds of canned religious format, ritual, and ceremony. Let’s truly lavish our love upon Christ Jesus our Lord each and every day! Let’s offer righteous sacrifices to God.  “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:15‬ ‭NLT‬‬ “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Prayer for today: 
Father, in Jesus name, help me live my life in worship to Your Holy Name in all that I do!