Daily Devotion – April 23, 2020 – Roy Hammerling
Hebrews 10:5-10
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired.”
The Right Deed for the Wrong Reason
As children, we all at some time have sought to bribe our parents with good behavior. I know that when I was young that I had a deviously streak inside of me. When I wanted something, I did my chores, made my bed, and even ate my vegetables, mocking saintliness out of a hope of reward. I feigned sacrificed. However, a true sacrifice offers freely without hope of anything in return. If given in love, a gift is life; food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, a drink for the thirsty, or being present for the sick, lost, lonely, or prisoner. Money hoarded or coveted, however, the bible plainly tells us, is evil. Still because we are sinful, false motivations at times pretend to make sacrifices, which appear holy, simply as a means of attempting to win gain for ourselves. As T.S. Eliot says in Murder in the Cathedral, “The last temptation is the greatest treason, to do the right deed, for the wrong reason.” When God dropped his son into a manger, the incarnation (his body and entire life) became the ultimate sacrifice, because what did God have to gain that he did not already have, except perhaps our hearts? And were those not God’s already? In these troubled days, the real gift of ourselves for others does not seek a prize, but only to have our hearts touch other broken hearts so that together they might both mend and be made whole. If we sacrifice, for any other reason than out of love for You, O God, then show us the path back to You so that not ever our right hand will know what our left is doing.
Prayer: Gracious God, accept our humble sacrifice of praise, not because we offer it as we ought, but because we offer it only as we are able. Amen.
Prayer Concerns: For those whose sacrifices are nothing more than reasons to gain prosperity or reputation, may God grant us the ability to give without a desire for more.
