He wants me to say it!

The Noah and the flood story is familiar. When the world was young, “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” so He had Noah, the only man who walked with Him, build an ark. Noah’s family and a pair of each of the animals were taken on board, with extra animals of those designated for sacrifice. The rest of the world was covered by a vast flood and every living thing destroyed.

After the flood, Genesis 8:20-21 tells us, “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.’”

My book, Recalling the Hope of Glory, says, “By making a sacrifice Noah acknowledged how much he and his family needed the LORD, expressed their submission to His sovereign will, and proclaimed His grace in redeeming and restoring life.” He goes on to say that this began the prospect of worship. Even though the human heart is still sinful, people could express their faith and submission to God through sacrifice, and God would smell the aroma of it and be pleased.

The ultimate sacrifice is Jesus Christ. Through His death I am redeemed and my life, which was once in darkness and spiritual death, has been restored. This sacrifice pleased God and because of it, I can express my gratitude to God and worship Him in an acceptable way.

This has nothing to do with me. I cannot earn nor do I deserve His pleasure. His smile is for Jesus who has become my life, yet He has made my union with Him so complete that every time I come to God in His name and with His sacrifice in mind, I can please God.

I think of this almost every Sunday morning. I’m responsible for teaching a Bible class and have been doing this for years. I know I can do it, yet I feel unable each week and call out to Him. I recognize and acknowledge that His life expressed through me has what it takes to do the job, and often say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

For someone who loves accomplishment of any kind and being patted on the back for a job well done, asking Jesus to do it for me and through me is a sacrifice of sorts also. I’m giving Him the place of honor, acknowledging that only He can do this task in a manner that will please God. Without Him, I can do nothing, and God is pleased when I think this way.

Life offers many such opportunities for me to express my gratitude to God for all that He has done for me. When something good happens, I can say, “I’m so glad that happened” or I can say “The Lord is so gracious and I am so thankful for His goodness to me.”

I could offer the first response thinking that God knows my heart, but the second one reminds me of Hebrews 13:15-16 and that He wants me to say it: “Therefore by Him (Jesus) let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name . . . for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”