This week I learnt something from this verse. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice... 1 Samuel 15:22.

Obedience. It is the supreme test of faith in God and reverence for Him. To obey is better than sacrifice. Let's look at the word sacrifice. Normally people relate sacrifice as offering, worship. So God is saying to obey Him is better than to offer ourselves in worship to Him. Does that make sense? At first it didn't to me. I thought God had always wanted us to worship Him, adore Him, praise His name, lift Him up and shout His praises. That's why one of the purposes why we're here is to worship Him. But then when I look back at the definition of the word obedience, there is this word reverence. It means to respect Him, to be in awe of Him. That's part of what worship is about! To respect God and to be in awe of all He has done, and to give praise. However, there's 1 more thing about obedience that is different from sacrifice. It is the supreme test of faith in God. God commands you to do something, you do it without much doubts, knowing that something good will come out of it, whether it be in heaven or on earth. Now that's obedience. To willingly do whatever you are commanded to do, at the same time respecting the one who commanded you. God has also given us many verses to support this.

Not everyone who says to me ,"Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Matthew 7:21

If you love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15

With this, I think about myself. Am I being obedient to God? Am I being obedient to my parents? Do I do what they command me to do and respect them at the same time? I doubt so. God has given us a perfect example in Jesus. And being found in appearence as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8. Jesus, being as human as we are, died on a cross for us. In that, He obeyed God. Although all saw that the sacrifice Jesus made changed the whole of mankind, we all must remember that it was Jesus who took the step of faith and obeyed God 1st.

To obey is better than sacrifice. How true.

Many complains about my blog alignment having some problem so here's a new one =)