what am I giving?

February 25, 2013

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up…to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

In the Old Testament, sacrifices were kind of a big deal. The OT saints were commanded to give different sacrifices depending on what they were celebrating/worshiping at that day. No matter what the particular sacrifice was they all had one thing in common. They were always to best. The best lamb, the best fruit, the best whatever. These OT believers were commanded by God to give Him their first crops; the very best they had to offer in order to show their love and devotion to Him. This verse in 1 Peter tells us that we, the NT believer, though we may not be tied to the sacrifices of the OT, we are called to give spiritual sacrifices. We are called to serve God and His church to the best of our ability, with our firsts our time, our money, and our devotion. Like the OT saints of old we are called to give to God the very best we have no matter if what we give is slightly different than what they gave. Are we giving God our very best spiritual sacrifices? I’m sure that those OT believers might have suffered some because they gave away the very best they had to God; they would have certainly had more money had they kept those fatted calves for themselves right, maybe (but that’s a blog post for another day!)? Again, I ask are we giving God our best? If not perhaps we should examine the reasons why we are not!