30 Days of Daily Grace

Day 21 Offering

Read

Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Reflect

Sacrifices and offerings have long been an act of worship to God since the beginning of man's existence. The offering of Cain and Abel was the first worship service before God (see Genesis 4). While the event did not turn out good, there are three things we can learn from these brothers' sacrificial service.

First, make every offering to God by faith. God's approval of Abel's offering was because of the presence of faith (Heb. 11:4). Even if something looks pleasing to others, without faith, it is of no value to God. The quantity does not really matter. When you offer your tithes and offering, your work or talents to serve, or whatever that maybe that contributes to the advancement of God's heavenly Kingdom, it matters.

However small it may seem to others or to the eyes of men, when done by faith, then it is pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6).

Second, do not compare your offering to others'. When Cain made that mistake of not offering to God by faith, he focused on being rejected and acted on his emotions rather than being repentant. It resulted to envy to his brother, which later on led him to killing his own brother. 

Comparison always brings destruction. That's why the Lord tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2) because looking at others has a lot of negative consequences, it stirs up the ugly feelings of man.

Third, having faith means humility which produces excellent worship. You can't fully trust God if pride still resides in your heart. With humility, Abel joyfully offered to God the firstborn of his flock, the best offering he could find. Humility acknowledges the authority and love that God has over us, and with that, we can best offer Him what we have out of love.

It is not the type of sacrifice that makes the offering excellent. It is by faith alone we can offer to Him, with excellence, everything that we have.

Just like Abel, you can give God the first fruits of your everything. It means making Him the authority in every area of your life, be it finances, relationships, job or academics. By faith, we can offer our body as a living sacrifice by giving Him the authority over our hearts. And in this, God is pleased.

Respond

What can you offer God today? (Be it your heart, to excel in your work, to serve others even in the simplest way, you can offer Him your time to worship and sing Him songs, etc.)

(Add on: An encouraging song for today's devotion.)

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I hope you learned something in our Day 21.
Don't hesitate to share your insight below. :))

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God bless. ♡