Topic: SACRIFICE IS WORSHIP – Bishop Mike Okonkwo Devotional 10 March 2020 [The Redeemed Evangelical Mission]
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SACRIFICE IS WORSHIP
“And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide, ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” Genesis 22:5. KJV
Sacrifice ought not to be a struggle. It is worship for the believer who truly understands. Sacrifice is willingly offering up something for the sake of something you place a greater value upon. You see, when you approach sacrifice with this understanding, it will no more be a struggle. God does not intend that sacrifice will be a struggle. But it is only when you truly understand what the grace and the mercy of God had accomplished on your behalf that your sacrifice becomes worship.
Essentially, sacrifice has to do with giving up something that you love for something you regard as more valuable and important to you. It must be what you love, not just anything. It is not just something you don’t need and want to throw away. That is not sacrifice. For instance, I love coffee, I love drinking coffee. I don’t know whether there is a day that passes that I don’t drink coffee. But during our 31 days of fasting and prayers, I don’t drink coffee. I do that not because God said I shouldn’t drink coffee, but just because I love it, I love to lay it down at the feet of the Master during fasting and prayer. I love watching movies at times but during fasting and prayers, I don’t really care about movies. I set aside a lot of things.
Now I am not asking you to do these. I am just showing you that when we speak about sacrifice, it goes beyond money and material things. There are places I don’t want to go because of my relationship with God. Because of the understanding that Jesus had concerning sacrifice, He saw His impending sacrifice on the cross as His hour of glory. He didn’t say, ‘’the hour has come for me to die.’’ He knew that glory always follows sacrifice.
Further Reading. Genesis 22:1-18
Daily Bible Reading: Morning- Deuteronomy 7-9; Evening- Mark 11:19-33