Sacrifice

A few weeks ago God asked me to fast and pray over 3 specific things; two I understood but the third one I didn’t get. I prayed anyway trusting that God would explain in due time. The first thing was for wisdom and direction regarding a specific fork in the road. The second was for health and the third was regarding sacrifice. Sacrifice? How was I supposed to pray about sacrifice? What did He mean? All I knew to do was to thank and praise Him for His sacrifice for my sin and to teach me whatever it was He had in mind.

A few days later Pastor Paul took us through 1 Kings 17:8-16. When Elijah told the widow (vs 13) to not be afraid but make bread for him 1st and then there would be enough for her and her son until the famine was over I was asked the question “will you obey me with your last serving?” Now we both know this question isn’t about food (and it’s a good thing too because I don’t share my food well). I suppose for each of us this question could be about something different. I had to ask myself, “what am I holding back because I am afraid of running out?”. I had two answers; but I’ll get to those in a minute. As I meditated on this and continued to fast and pray summed it up for myself this way:
“Sacrifice your last little bit of __________
without fear;
knowing that God will care for your needs.”

The next week, at church, we reviewed 1 Kings 18 and pastor Tim pointed out that Elijah poured 12 large jars of water on his offering when it had not rained in that area for 3 years. Water would have been a pretty precious commodity at this point and it made me wonder if the purpose of the water wasn’t so much to take away any reasonable doubt that the fire came from God as it was a part of the sacrifice itself. God’s fire, according to verse 38, consumed the bull, the wood, the 12 stones, the dirt from under the stones, and “licked up” the water from the trench. Either way, I am challenged to sacrifice that thing I feel most in need of to God. My personal summary from that lesson was to:
“Sacrifice my most precious commodity and trust that
God will reveal Himself and
affirm His call on my life.”

Since we were going through 1 Kings in church I read through it in my private studies as well. As I read the account of Elisha’s call to be a prophet and follow Elijah there was another occurrence of a sacrifice.(1 Kings 19) The footnotes in my Bible describes this as a Thank Offering for his calling. That sounds perfectly reasonable but what caught my attention was that he uses the elements of his work for this sacrifice. He used his plowing equipment and the oxen he’d been working the fields with, fed his family and said goodbye. It is common in our society to try to prevent burning our bridges behind us in case we ever need to go back that way again but this was not Elisha’s stance. So, as I mulled this over I concluded that I must:
“Sacrifice those things that represent my past labors and
completely surrender to the new task at hand.”

Again, all these sacrifices will look different to each of us; but what do these things look like to me? To be honest I don’t know about that third one yet. At the moment I haven’t encountered the “new task” that will require a sacrifice of my current labors but I pray that I will eagerly obey when the time comes. For now I do know that I must not be afraid to use my limited energy for whatever task God asks of me, knowing that He will replenish it according to my needs. (For those of you that don’t know I have Fibromyalgia causing chronic pain to severely lower my energy reserves. It is like I’ve traded my economy car for an RV and instead of getting 30 mpg I get about 6.) I’ve been afraid to spend my energy on things because I wanted to be sure I had enough to do the other things I needed to do. My challenge now is to be unafraid and willingly minister to others trusting God will sustain me.

Then lastly I must sacrifice money. (The other thing I have little of.) While we have always tithed often I’ve delayed turning it in to pay a bill, instead of giving off the top. Then, in addition to that how can we rightly ask gifts of you (over and above your tithe) if we are not willing to do the same? So, we are praying about exactly who we will send support money to but you and I both know several people staring churches right now, so there are plenty to choose from. I know that what we give won’t provide a significant percentage of the need but it only takes 10 people to turn $25.00 into $250.00 and if Jesus can divide 5 loaves of bread into enough to feed over 5000 people (that’s 1000 people per loaf, by the way) He can surely make our little gift(s) stretch out and satisfy needs. But I have to give it before He can multiply it.

I pray that God’s message to my life these past few weeks will encourage you to trust God with whatever it is you may be afraid to let go of and look expectantly for Him to satisfy all your needs.


Luke 21:4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty gave all she had to live on.

1 Kings 17:13 Elijah said to her “don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, then make something for yourself and your son.

1 Kings 19:33 Then he said to them fill four large jars w/ water and pour it over the offering and on the wood…