Bible Devotions for Living

Are your sacrifices acceptable to God?

¹¹ “What are all your sacrifices to Me?” asks the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. ¹² When you come to appear before Me, who requires this from you— this trampling of My courts? ¹³ Stop bringing useless offerings. Your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons and Sabbaths, and the calling of solemn assemblies— I cannot stand iniquity with a festival. ¹⁴ I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to Me; I am tired of putting up with them. ¹⁵ When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. (Isa 1:11-15)

God was not happy with the Israelites because they were living sinfully and apart from Him. He rejected their sacrifices, offerings, assemblies in His Name, and festivals to Him. He refused to even look at them when they lifted their hands in admiration, worship, and would not listen to their prayers.

Why is this important to you?

Because Scripture shows that as a believer in Jesus Christ, your life is the sacrifice you are to offer up to God:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom 12:1)

You may offer up your service, praise, songs, or many other things to God as a sacrifice or offering. The question is whether He is accepting it or not. Scripture shows us there are three key factors that make an offering acceptable to God – the purity of the giver, the motive of the giver, and the quality of the gift.

Purity of the giver:

The passage above shows that God rejects the sacrifice and offerings from a sinful and unrepentant person. Cain would be the first example of this in Scripture. He was evil (1 Jn 3:11-12) and God rejected his gifts and offerings (Gen 4:4-5; Heb 11:4). The purity of the giver is very important to whether God accepts the gifts, offerings, and sacrifices.

For example, God may not listen to the prayers of a person who is not living right:

If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. (Ps 66:18)

Anyone who turns his ear away from hearing the law—even his prayer is detestable. (Pv 28:9)

Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with an understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. (1 Pe 3:7)

Quality of the gift:

⁸ “When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts. ⁹ “And now ask for God’s favor. Will He be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will He show any of you favor?”, asks the Lord of Hosts. ¹⁰ “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. (Mal 1:8-10)

The quality of your gift, sacrifice, or offering needs to be good. Are you giving God your best? Is your heart and mind engaged when you are praising and worshipping Him? Are you praying when you’re awake in the morning or phoning it in and falling asleep in prayer at night?

Motives of the giver:

⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me? ⁶ When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves?” (Zec 7:5-6)

Are you bringing offerings, gifts, and sacrifices to God for the right reasons? You should be giving them out of love for Him and because of who He is and what He’s done. You should not be doing those things to get something out of Him.

Think about it

Are your offerings acceptable to God?

Are you a pure giver or are you living a sinful life or worldly life with no repentance?

Is the quality of your gift good or lame? For example, are you offering God a couple of minutes of prayer right before bed when you are barely awake or offering Him the best time of your day? Are you halfheartedly offering your service to God in home, in church ministry, in worship? Is the quality of your sacrifice and offering lame?

Are your motives good or bad? Are you doing things for yourself? Doing them to be noticed? Doing them to save yourself?

How do you think God would answer the questions above for you?

He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Mk 7:6)

Make sure your life is holy and acceptable to God.