Ask Not What Your God Can Do for You…

“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.”  1 Samuel 15:22

For many, a relationship with God is not so much a blessing as it is an equation. They’ve convinced themselves if they go through the motions, and give God some singing and clapping on Sundays, and a tithe check to the church on Monday, and mow the widow’s yard on Saturday, that they’ll be able to withdraw from God’s bank of blessings for their own needs and wants at some point in the very near future.

In today’s American culture, everything revolves around an unspoken question: What will this do for me? Because we’re at the center of our own universes, naturally anything we participate in or put effort to has to pay off for us in some way. So if God says do this or act like that, and God has access to bless us big time, then why not obey God? There’s bound to be something good in it. But as the writer of 1 Samuel reminds us, burnt offerings and sacrifices don’t really do anything for Him. Did you ever wonder if those folks in the Old Testament knew God didn’t really want a big pile of dead animals? What He did want, however, was their obedience to sacrifice those animals as He commanded.

The things God desires from us aren’t for His benefit, but for ours. There’s nothing that God needs from us. He’s God after all, He is going to be just fine. But when we serve God, obey God, spend time to know God and grow in our faith in God, this is to our benefit. God gives us the faith to know Him, and prepares for us works to do in His name, and gives us the talents and abilities to do these works—all of this is to make us into the persons He wants us to be. So ask not what your God can do for you. He‘s already doing it!

God, thank You for accomplishing Your work in me as You grow me in faith and obedience. As I read Your Word each day, help me to understand how You want me to respond. May Your Spirit motivate my every action. In Jesus’ name, Amen.