Thursday, October 9, 2014

Thanksgiving Offering or Sacrifice

Written: 2014-10-04 13:25:00, Saturday

How important is thanksgiving?

How important is it to thank God, show Him our gratitude, and count our blessings?

Prayer journal your response to each question before you read ahead.

How important is it to count our blessings? See 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and Philippians 4:6. (Go ahead. Look them up at this time if you cannot quote them off the top of your head.)

Read these verses to learn how much more important it is than you think:

Leviticus 7:11-13 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

11 “Now this is the law of the fellowship sacrifice that someone may present to the Lord: 12 If he presents it for thanksgiving, in addition to the thanksgiving sacrifice, he is to present unleavened cakes mixed with olive oil, unleavened wafers coated with oil, and well-kneaded cakes of fine flour mixed with oil. 13 He is to present as his offering cakes of leavened bread with his thanksgiving sacrifice of fellowship.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

A thanksgiving sacrifice...

Let that sink in for a moment. Prayer journal your thoughts.

What does this mean? (What do you think? Again. Prayer journal your thoughts.)

I know what a sacrifice is. It's what you have to give up in order to obey and worship God. It's a sacred act. It's an acknowledgement that He alone is God.

I know that Jesus is the final sacrificial lamb. He is the lamb who was slain so no other sacrifice is ever again needed. Blood sacrifice that is.

It's the blood sacrifice which forgives our sins and allows us to go to heaven and spend eternity with God.

However, there are other sacrifices.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 and Philippians 4:6 show the importance of always giving thanks. If we are to do it always, for God, isn't it a sacrifice? This is what the New testament says. Leviticus 7:11-13 talk about the sacrifice of thanksgiving as well.

A sacrifice for God--through thanking Him and counting our blessings.

A sacrifice is a sacred rite or practice.

It's going to the Holy of Hollies.

We are to offer thanks so much to God, for so many things, that we do it day and night--as a sacrifice--where we do it rather than something else. A sacrifice. We give something up so we can offer God thanksgiving instead.

And, offering God continual thanksgiving is also like never ceasing prayer and always meditating on the Word. It's something we can do as we do other things--and is what we should do at all times.

Should be and could be are nice, but what does this look like in practice and in application?

And, how can we turn counting our blessings into something sacred?

HOW?

How do we do this? How do we count our blessings at all times? How do we offer thanksgiving as a sacrifice to God? How do we make thanksgiving a sacred act?

It is God who makes something holy and sacred. Not us.

However, our part in the process is being intentional, and purposeful, about searching for all of the blessings in each moment, past, present, and future. We are to search for the blessings and count them. We are to remember what God has done, is doing, and will do. We are to do this at all times. This makes our counting of blessings a sacrifice. We acknowledge the Holy. We look for and recognize God and His work.

Lord, teach each of us to offer thanksgiving as an offering to You. Help us to find it this important.

(Image credit: Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC and Norfolk Botanic Garden 2014.)