If we love someone, we’ll give up anything to be with them. Out goes the sugar, we toss the TV remote, and that sports car that costs so much? Sold! Gone forever!
We know we’re loved when we’re more important than the stuff, than the things that get in the way of us. It’s also how we show we love someone. We give up something important to us so that we can prove the depth of our love.
It’s the reason for Lent, for fasting and prayer, and for giving in the offering until it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt, it’s not love.
Except God doesn’t feel that way. Sure, he appreciates our sacrifices, just as we appreciate it when our spouse gives up a game of golf to watch a chick movie with us. However, that’s not how God knows he’s loved.
1 Samuel 15:22 tells us:
“And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
God doesn’t find his happiness in the things we give up. Chocolate? Movie night? Shopping trips with the girls? We can give up those and still not please God.
God wants us to walk in the ways of Christ and to follow the example of his Son. When we do that, God’s heart is melted with his love for us.
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