How many times have we sung the words, “I will bless the Lord,” or some variation thereof, to various tunes? I know I have, and I meant it every single time. In my mind, me blessing the Lord was speaking and singing His praises. That is part of it, yes; I do believe it blesses His heart when we express our love and gratitude for Him. He loves His children, and any parent loves to know and hear that their children love them back. But one day, as I was singing these exact words, God dropped some revelation in my heart.
It was Sunday morning, and I was slated to speak. It was my first Sunday delivering the morning message in, oh, at least 13 years. And the last time I delivered a morning message, there were about five people in the audience. This room, however, was full. At least, that’s how it felt to me. I wrestled with my nerves during the worship and tried to keep my mind focused on the Lord, but, let’s be real, I was mostly just singing the songs and not genuinely connecting with them. So when I felt Him speak into my heart, I was first of all, so grateful, and second of all, a little surprised. I didn’t think I was focusing enough on anything other than trying to not run to the bathroom every five minutes and guzzle my entire bottle of water at the same time. Yet, there it was, His wonderful, soothing voice, whispering in my heart.
“Do you know what blesses me?” Now, whenever God asks me a question, I always just ask Him to answer it. His answers are always better than mine and always something I need to hear in that moment.
So I asked Him, “What blesses You, Lord? You know I always want to bless You.”
He said, “Your obedience blesses Me. I have called you to go up and speak, so go up there and bless Me.”
Wow! But, of course! After all, He does say in 1 Samuel 15:22 “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…” But didn’t the sacrifices please God? I mean, He is the One who instituted the sacrificial system. Yes, they did please Him and these ritualistic sacrifices are often described as having a “pleasing aroma” that went up to the Lord. But as much as He delighted in the aroma of those sacrifices, which, I would venture to say, stemmed from the Israelite’s obedience to His Law (since sacrifices not offered according to the letter of the law were displeasing and rejected), what He really wanted, and always has, is obedience.
Abraham lived BEFORE the era of priestly sacrifices, and it was his obedience that pleased God. Same with Abel, Isaac, Jacob, and others I’m sure. Not that these men didn’t offer sacrifices to God, we know they did, but at the time that they lived, there was no Law mandating what sacrifice for which misdeed. These people simply made them out of obedience, and perhaps love, for God. Their sacrifices were an outward expression of their heart for God. Their sacrifices weren’t made according to a written prescription for sin; they made their sacrifices out of a lifestyle of reverence for and connection to God.
Nowadays, Jesus is our sacrifice that brings us into connection with God. But we in turn also make a sacrifice. A daily one. Romans 12:1 says we are “to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Hmmmm….presenting my body as a living sacrifice sounds a whole lot like Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23 “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” The cross was the instrument used to sacrifice Jesus, and He tells us we need to take up our crosses…we need to sacrifice ourselves for God. Every. Single. Day. And I don’t mean bringing harm to yourself, and neither does God, I believe He means to give up our plans, our thoughts, our own sense of justice, how we use our time and our words. And that’s just the beginning.
When we give, or sacrifice, these things, and yes, sacrifice, because it’s HARD; when we do this, we are essentially positioning ourselves in a posture of FULL submission and obedience to Him. We are living a lifestyle of reverence for God and through that lifestyle demonstrating our connection to God. Just like those who went before us—Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Living our lives in this way delights God more than I believe we can even begin to imagine. He doesn’t want us to sacrifice on behalf of someone else; He wants us to sacrifice ourselves. And THAT is how we bless God; we bless Him through laying ourselves down before Him in a state of sacrifice. So, the next time we say or sing, “I will bless the Lord,” we can ask ourselves, How can I be obedient to the Lord? It may be hard… actually, if I were you, I’d plan on it because that’s exactly what makes it a sacrifice. These daily, individual acts of obedience may seem oh, so hard and impossible before I step over the precipice into decisive action, yet I have found no greater blessing in my life than to bless the Lord through my obedience. I challenge you to do the same and experience the blessing of blessing the Lord.