Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. 23The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!
Psalms 50:14-15, 23
Something about the holiday season brings back memories of childhood fun. Tag was one of my favorite games as a child. Something about the wild carefree speed in pursuit of touching others and unpredictable change of tides when the roles changed was exhilarating as a kid. Looking back, I realize how much that game can be like our pursuit of God.
In Psalms, we see this sequence of actions between God and his chosen people. First, there is a sacrifice of thank offerings and a genuine pledge of trust in the Lord. When trouble arises His people cry for help and God responds. In response to being saved, the people praise God for His helping hand. This back and forth is followed by a nugget of wisdom in verse 23; basically, it means our obedience is preferable to sacrifice.
God is sovereign. He has power and authority over everything. As believers, we are accountable for our actions. Yep! We still have responsibilities that we must fulfill as a child of God. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we begin our pursuit of chasing after God. When trouble comes, we have two choices: get distracted or cry to God for help. The latter choice results in God coming to our aid and, of course, we rejoice and praise God for His saving grace. But what if there was an even better option?
What if we practiced obedience instead of tag?
What if an instruction from God is our opportunity to chase after God with our actions? Instead of the usual call and response, what if we chose to just trust and obey?
If God has placed something in your spirit, let me encourage you to obey! An obedient pursuit of God and His will for our lives yields more than we could ever imagine.
