Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
November 2, 2022
Psalm 50:14 "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving"
This Psalm was a peek into the new covenant that Jesus would bring, some 1000 years later! The Old Testament was all about animal sacrifice for atonement of sins, but David's writings would reveal that he understood the symbolism that God was teaching. The Israelites were acting as though God needed their sacrifices, as though He couldn’t do without them. But everything already belongs to God. The cattle, the birds, everything is already God’s. The sacrifices were to teach people about salvation through Jesus Christ. They sacrifices were pointing to Jesus long before He even came.
David wanted them to understand that the reason they were to offer the sacrifices was not that God needed them, but in thankfulness for God’s love and forgiveness. David understood that when we are thankful, our hearts are pure - you can't fake gratitude to someone who knows your heart!
It’s so easy to forget that everything belongs to God, so we think we can use our money and time any way we want to, as long as we put some money in the collection plate, or just give some of our time to God. But it’s already His. All our money, all our time, all our things. Every second of every day belongs to God and we must serve Him.
We all know people who advertise when they do "the Lord work". Tim Hawkins, a Christian comedian, did a great comedy act on pseudo-serving Jesus - after working at church setting up 500 chairs, he couldn't wait to gossip to his friends about what he had done. Then on the way home, after he cut someone off in traffic, he used a naughty gesture. He was pulled over by a cop who thought he stole the car. The cop explained that the reason he pulled him over was because - "but your bumper sticker says, "Honk if you love Jesus" and you weren't acting like a Christian".
God wants a humble heart of thankfulness - what a great month to make this intentional - as we prepare for Thanksgiving, let us remember that it is not just a day devoted to overeating with our family. We can ask God for the gift of gratitude - He will surely grant it. Thank you, Father!