Last night I choose to make what is to me a horrendous sacrifice.
I gave up my opportunities for leading worship of our LORD with strings in hand...
with my guitar that I so dearly love playing for Him,
in order to demonstrate by my own sacrifice
the absolute necessity of HONORING God,
of giving Him our BEST gift possible...
which sometimes is
a broken heart.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
Strongly Christ-following friends (to whom I didn't need to share details)
supported me with prayers for my wisdom,
for protection from any self-ishness in the final decision that for half a year
seemed to be needed. To them I give thanks. To you I remind of
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12..... God WANTS us to support each other.
Matthew 18: 15-20, JESUS EMPHASIZES that we are to support each other.
Including in decision making.
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) ....
In today's society of cell phones and internet,
we can be "gathered together" in heart and across distance, praying for Jesus to hep.
Last night I choose to make what is to me a heart-breaking sacrifice.
Which is NOT said to brag. But to encourage!
God HONORS sacrifices...
including when we sacrifice joy of certain foods to honor Him.
It's sort of like TITHING... How can you explain to people that God's many promises like Malachi 3:10 to 11 and 2nd Corinthians 9 are PROVEN TRUE,
that God honors and blesses those who tithe,
unless you tell them that you tithe, which seems to go against Jesus's word in
Matthew 6. Yet if it is in our heart to share with people ONLY so they too will know the joy of honoring and obeying our LORD God....
God calls people to be His prophets, speaking His Words (only),
to pass on His TRUTHS as Jesus taught us:
Our sacrifices of any type --
including "pleasant foods" --
HONOR LORD God.
WHEN our heart is to indeed HONOR Him,
and not self-focused or an attempt to 'get' God
to "bless us back."
GOD'S ENCOURAGEMENT
Malachi 3:10 THIS sacrifice of money,
or any sacrifice to HONOR LORD God,
including "pleasant foods" (see Daniel 1, for example)
pleases Him.
And the results from God bring us unimaginable blessings
of joy and peace (not necessarily money or lots of Lost Pounds!)"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
PRAYER
Lord, I want to honor YOU and YOU ALONE.
Help me to make the right choices that do so.
Not just with food. With all my life decisions.
Give me your Holy Spirit's empowering and protection from temptations, I pray.
©2013 DianaDee Osborne; all rights reserved. But feel free to print with copyright info, & share for nonprofit usage!
Other encouraging resources: http://DianaDeeSongStories.blogspot.com
