Jeremiah 7:21-23
“‘The Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: ‘Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don’t want them! When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such. But I did say this, commanded this: “Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.’”
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves! When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’”
God doesn’t want our sacrifices. We do all kinds of things to puff up our sense of worth, obliging God to favor us, even those who know better. The sin we were born into is the culprit. Our first though is always to self-aggrandize. But there is no need. God loves us even though we are sinners. (Romans 5:8) He longs for relationship with us as he did with Israel. Our sacrifice of word and deed has no power over him because he doesn’t want it in the first place.
Lord, forgive my posturing. Anything good in me came from you in the first place. Shred me when I try to paper over my life with good deeds. Keep me anchored at your fountain of blessing where working and trying give way to peaceful being.