Devotional - July 29, 2004

Amaziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. How many times have we heard it said in Scripture that a king failed to please God and it provoked the Almighty to anger? I'm not sure how many, but I know there were only a handful of kings who were different. Amaziah was one of them. But, even though this king did good things, the Bible says he didn't serve the Lord with his whole heart.

The writer of Romans encourages us to please God by surrendering ourselves wholeheartedly to God, like a animal sacrifice consumed on the altar of God. It takes commitment to do that. It takes a willingness to give up everything near and dear to you as well. I'm reminded of the joke where the pig and the chicken determine to do something nice for their owner. The chicken suggested making breakfast for him, but the pig protested loudly."What's wrong with my idea," the chicken asked. The pig replied, "It's not fair! Providing breakfast requires a small commitment from you but it requires total sacrifice on my part.

Most of us calling ourselves a Christian will say we're dedicated. Like the chicken in our story, we're willing to lay some eggs and scramble them them up for God, but when it comes to dying to our plans and aspirations, we'll stop short all too often and walk away.

The writer of Romans in the twelveth chapter (v 1) knew the thought of sacrifice would strike an image in the mind of the Romans. They loved to eat and could they ever throw a party! But the Jews were different; they took the animals the Romans liked to eat for dinner and effectively "wasted" them on an altar in order in order to please God.

If we're going to please God, we've got to first give up our desire and then discover what God desires. When we know it, we then give ourselves wholly to it without regard to what we may have given up. The picture of this selfless sacrifice is clearly painted on the canvas of Calvary. What God did for us could be likened to the gift that required total commitment. He gave His life without regard for he own desire to do what pleased the Father and would redeem those He loved.

If you want to please God, then the first step is to know what He desires and the way we do that is to get in the word of God and get before the Father in a spirit of prayer until the answer comes through. The all we have to do is surrender our plans to His and allow Him to use us any way He desires. That pleases God.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru (2 Ch. 24:1-25:28 Rm. 12:1-21 Ps. 22:19-31 Pr. 20:8-10 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society