How We Love MattersSample

Sacrifice.

Webster defines it as “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.”

Did you hear that? Giving up something valued.

That is hard isn’t it? You see, it’s easy to sacrifice something you don’t care about or could easily do without. But that’s not actually a sacrifice.

The very definition of sacrifice is to give up something that costs you. Why? Because to give up something that costs you demonstrates that your love for the one you are sacrificing for is greater than your love for the thing you are separating from. It’s an act of devotion. It’s a statement of priority. And it’s a declaration of one's heart posture. To sacrifice says “you are worth more to me than the things that are worth most to me.”

This is why David, in 2 Samuel 24, wouldn’t just take another man's sacrifice as an offering to the Lord. But he said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

What does he mean? He is saying that God means too much to him to phone it in. He had this burning desire to show God how much He meant to him. He wanted to show he understood God's worth and would not take it for granted. The beautiful thing is that this was not done out of compulsion, but of David's own volition. He wanted to love his God in a way that made God feel like the greatest priority in his life. And that’s exactly what David did.

Isn’t that beautiful? I mean, who doesn’t want to be loved like that? We all do. The question is, are we only waiting to receive it or are we giving it? Are we loving God in a way that declares that He is the greatest priority in our life?

A worship that costs nothing is probably not worship at all.

Meaning, true worship should cost us something. True love should cost us something. True sacrifice should cost us something. It will cost the denial of our fleshly desires. It will cost the ability to just live how we want to live. It will cost our desires to fit in with this culture. It will cost our time, our money, and our resources. And if we are not paying any of these prices, then at some point we probably need to start questioning the validity of our offering.

Believers are called to live a life of sacrifice. Sacrifices for God and sacrifices for each other.

It’s how we love.

So, what can you offer to the Lord? How can you give of yourself this week?

Know that in every sacrifice you are demonstrating the outward declaration of your love to the Father and the fact that He is fully worth every single ounce of it.

For His glory, amen.