sacrifice praise

What do I know of sacrifice?

Yesterday’s sacrifice seems easy in the light of today’s comfort. The heart that wants to find a way to make sacrifice self-serving will find it. The giving can be justified by the reward in many ways.

Is that the heart of sacrifice I long to cultivate?

And why, oh why, do we want others to know all about it? To be justified by their approval, so our sacrificial act can make us feel better about… ourselves?

Is this sacrifice?

What if there were no reward tomorrow?

What if only God saw?

What if only He benefited from our painful loss?

Why do we need to know our sacrifice is purposeful in any way other than to show God that we belong to Him?

I know only of the sacrifice yet to be. The truest moment of faith is the step taken into the abyss called “No One Knows”. When you wonder if any good will come from your disciplined choice to turn the other cheek when the first has been struck, to empty a bank account meant for a vacation so that someone you don’t even know can have clean water, to weep with a friend when hope seems long gone, or to love the one who so rarely loves you back.

True sacrifice shouts praise to the heavens, telling God we believe there is more than this life, this place, these comforts; that He doesn’t have to prove His goodness to us so long as He will walk with us.

God’s approval is so much more precious than any man’s or woman’s. They see only our act of sacrifice. He sees our motivation in the sacrifice. What appears to be holiness in the hand can actually be birthed from crookedness in the soul. But holiness in the soul births godliness in a place once filled with sin and self.

God’s friendship makes for a far greater reward than any person’s.

What do I know of sacrifice? Only this: that more has been done for me on the cross than I could ever attempt to do myself. I was rewarded in sovereign grace before I even drew breath.

Which begs two questions:

What more should I ask of God, really?

and

What more can I sacrifice for God?