What God Wants

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Ps. 40:6

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his sounds like spiritual double talk or ignorance, but in fact it is the essence of spirituality. Did God not ask for, request, even require that we come with our sacrifices? Did He not reject Cain’s sacrifice and was not Abel’s accepted? Did He not ask for Abraham to offer Isaac on the altar, and were not millions of lambs sacrificed as burnt offerings at the Temple? How can the Psalmist say, “Sacrifice and offering thou did not desire?”

What God wants is not our herds but our hearts. A true sacrifice comes from the heart. If the sacrifice does not touch our heart, it does not touch God’s heart. When a mother sacrifices in order to give something to her children it is loving at its best. She sacrifices her dream, her desire, her interest in order to meet the need in her family’s life. God only wants our Heart, but hearts (as they are) are easily stolen by things and others.

I asked a fellow for a favor and he declined as he said he was “too busy” to help. The truth is, I was reaching out to minister. I was trying to find his spiritual heart. I was giving someone an opportunity to show love. One day we will see that demands on our time, our resources, and invasions of our privacy and our space were simply tests of the heart. “Give me to drink” was really a test in Sychar. God did not want Isaac? God wanted the world to have an example of a man who gave God the treasures his heart. “mine ears hast thou opened…” is another way of saying “I hear you,” or I understand you.” So many do not understand God. God is love and what He really wants is my heart.”