Mary's responsibility at home is to clean up the dishes after supper. She does so faithfully each night. One night Mary's parent serves grilled cheese for dinner. "How dare you serve me grilled cheese? I've done the dishes every night. I never complain and I even put clean out the sink! I deserve much more than grilled cheese for dinner!"
It's not a perfect illustration, but I was Mary earlier this week. You see Adam and I left everything we knew and moved to MA, we live in seminary housing with no dishwasher, and I (mistakenly) thought that I was doing God a favor. Then on Friday, I woke up to water spots in our ceiling and water dripping into our apartment from the window. We put towels down to dry up the water as much as we could and Adam waited on maintenance while I headed to work. A couple of hours later I received a text from Adam... Maintenance said they can't do anything right now - told us to soak it up as best you can and wait until it gets warmer. My reaction was something like this: "Wait until it gets warmer?! Are you kidding me? This is where we live. How dare they expect us to live here while water leaks in!"
Later I began reading an article about the work that Compassion International has done in Haiti since the Tsunami in 2010. I read of families completely displaced from their homes and others who moved back in only to deal with constant leaks and major damage. Ugh. What about my situation made me think that I was doing God a favor? How could I ever think that my sacrifice of ashes could compare to the riches of heaven that He owns?
Psalm 51:16-19, "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do goo to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar."
Psalm 54:6-7, "With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies."
Do you see it? God is pleased with our sacrifice when it comes from thanksgiving, from humility - realizing the help that He has provided us, realizing His salvation in our lives. God doesn't need anything from us (Ps. 50:12). Our sacrifice is not a favor to Him. God doesn't owe us anything. Our sacrifice is a thanksgiving, it's all we can offer when we realize how much God has done for us!
Abba, I am humbled. I am honored to serve you, to offer what little I have to you. Forgive me for a haughty attitude, for thinking that I deserved a place of honor. You are my helper, my salvation. You are the reason that I live, the reason that I have any blessing in this life. Thank you for accepting my sacrifice of thanksgiving.
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