Tag Archives: sacrifice

April 23
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“But Samuel replied: ‘Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.'” (I Samuel 15:22, NIV)

The adage, “It is better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission,” has no traction in a disciple’s relationship with his or her heavenly Father.

Like any good parent, God wants you and me to be obedient to His will and to His way because disobedience’s true price is a sacrifice of another sort: Sacrificed time, sacrificed opportunities, sacrificed relationships that might have sustained us and, most notably, sacrificed intimacy with our Father, God and Creator.

In the economy of heaven, simple obedience is always preferable to our most extravagant “make-ups” and “make-goods” for our willful disobedience. “To obey is better than sacrifice.”  – Luther

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February 24
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“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 38:6-7, NIV) 

We often think of fasting as something from which we refrain or abstain — and that is a true definition. However, according to our reading from Isaiah, God’s chosen fast can be as much a time of engagement as it is a time of denial or retreat.

During this Lenten season, disciples will often give-up something.  This is a good thing, if only as a reminder that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)

At the same time, we also need to remember that God is as interested in what we have chosen to take-up as He is in what we’ve chosen to give-up.  There is as much for us in the “taking up our cross” as in the “denying one’s self.” (Please see Matthew 16:24.)

Let us strive to maintain this balance in our discipleship!  – Luther

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