SCRIPTURE: What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NLT
THOUGHT: One of my favorite VeggieTales Movies when my girls were little was Larry Boy and the Fib from Outer Space. Some of you may remember it too. Jr. Asparagus gets tempted into a fib that just grows and grows until it threatens the whole town. The power of the giant fib can’t be reversed until he comes clean about his lie. That’s a lot more like people than vegetables, don’t you think? Little lies become big ones. Become rebellions. Become stubbornness because now so much is built around the little lie it’s a lot harder to come clean. The simplest way to live is to offload the lies altogether. Tell the truth, even if it hurts. God will help us through the mess if only we are honest.
The thing about obedience being better than sacrifice is based on God’s perspective. In the Old Testament, sacrifice is what you do after you sin; sweet obedience is what you do before. Sacrifice is in some ways equal to us realizing we’ve sinned and asking forgiveness, while obeying God’s commands (like don’t lie) is far better for the relationships of love and trust we hope to grow.
Don’t lie. If you think about it, it makes sense for humans and veggies.
CLIP: Larry Boy and the Fib From Outer Space, part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLEGf0CE_08
PRAYER: Help us love the sound of your voice, Lord. Help us love it so much we run to obey what you’ve asked rather than run to our own stubbornness and rebellion. Rather than running to sacrifice after the fact, help us run to Truth every time we’re tempted with a lie.
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