This Might Be A Tough Test

   The Word comes to me in two places in the Scripture reading in Psalms 50 this morning:

   Verse 14 says: "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,"

   Verse 23 continues: "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;"

   How is thanksgiving truly a sacrifice? Perhaps it is found in the verb "offer" that is used in both of the above passages.

   Back in the Old Testament, there is a whole series of sacrifices that the children of Israel were commanded by God to offer to Him. These were instituted for the people in order for them to conform their lives to the laws of the God they served and who had saved them. A sacrifice would be an act of obedience, showing that a person wanted to be in right relationship to Him. These people gave up the right to something that they had in order to fulfill the law of God.

   How about an offering of thanksgiving? What do I give up in order to present this attitude to God? What does it take for me to do this?

   I know from reading more of the lives of the Israelite people, that God was not always pleased with the sacrifices they made, sacrifices that were made strictly to look good, but were not made from the heart. The attitude of the person was more important than the act. The condition of the heart was the key to acceptance of the sacrifice.

   So when I willingly give to God the offering of my grateful heart, I present an acceptable sacrifice to Him. I give up the right to be prideful of what I might have done, but instead give Him the praise for what He has done. I give up the right to take any credit for the circumstances of my life that I might like and instead give credit where credit is due for His gifts to me.

   I also give up any rights that I might have to be down or to bemoan my life at that particular moment, to say woe is me, and also my right to compare myself to another.

   I have been blessed by God, through nothing that I have done, and I am grateful for all of that. A lot of that has come in the form of material blessings which I enjoy and the health that is mine now. My acknowledgment of all that is a beginning, but can I give it all back to Him in the true spirit of sacrifice and still be thankful?

   Do I really want that test?