Last night before I went to bed I was battling in my mind on what to write the next day since I may not go out before 1pm. I opened my bible to read the book of Hosea chapter 6; on reading up to verse 6 \”I want you to show love not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offering\”. I paused to meditate on those words. Immediately it dropped in my mind a \”Broken and Repentant heart not sacrifice\” then I remembered that on 16th of March which was my birthday I constantly prayed for God to grant me a Broken heart and a heart to know Him better.
I closed my bible on Hosea, and went straight to Psalm 51 though wasn\’t sure of the exact verse where king David prayed to God for a broken and contrite heart when he committed sin against Bathsheba. As I read down patiently I got to verses 15 to 17 I shouted Praise God!! For the revelation of His words in my heart. So I decided to use it as the days topic and for our reading pleasure.
Psalm 51:15-17.
51:15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
51:16 For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering. [I Sam. 15:22.]
51:17 My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
My dear, the word of God is perfect and complete, giving us all we need to know about Christ, Salvation and godliness.
\”For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart\”. (Hebrew 4:12).
For some time now I have had burdens in my heart concerning how to redeem my pledges to two different churches.
(1) I pledged to my local church to robe the entire choir during my family Thanksgiving in Christmas time 2019
(2) I pledged to help in the ongoing building of the pastor\’s residential house of my parents local church during their annual Thanksgiving service at every last Sunday of the year, habitually for many years now.
Since Easter is approaching I deem it proper to redeem both pledges, I begin to pray to God to enable me do that. This morning after reading the Bible verses my burden left me, I begin to meditate on what God needs more from us not really sacrifice while our lives are filthy and full of hetrade without showing Love to one another. Though I had searched my mind if I\’m holding anything against anybody but my conscience did not condemn me
\”But he who practices truth [who does what is right] comes out into the Light; so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are–wrought with God [divinely prompted, done with God\’s help, in dependence upon Him] (John 3:21).
In my praying life I do more of intersessory than personal prayers, always praying for foes and folks alike. Then again I felt it is revealed to me perhaps to reach out to others and to let them know what God actually wants from us.
God doesn\’t want sacrifices or offerings, He wants us to take joy in doing His will. Psalm 40:6-8. In Jeremiah 7:21-23 . It isn\’t sacrifices God wants; He desires our obedience and promises that He will be our God and we will be His people.
God is not satisfied with offerings ; He wants us to do what is right; Love, show of mercy and walk humbly with Him. Micah 6:6-8
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. (Hebrew 4:16).
Please use this period to reach out to the unreachable. Though the Coronavirus pandemic has inhibits people now to reach out and touch the uncared for and the unloved of the society due to people are now on self quarantine for safety yet your fervent prayers will avail much. Thanks for Reading. Please leave a comment. Remain Blessed 🙏.
✍️ BlessingOnugha ❤️.