Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Psalms 50:23

“He who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way rightly [who follows the way that I show him],
I shall show the salvation of God.” (AMP)

The last time I checked, we are not sacrificing goats, bulls, and lambs in order to atone for our sins. All those blood sacrifices are of the old covenant. Jesus came and sacrificed himself for our sins on the cross once and for all. So no more animal sacrifices are needed.

In fact, in Psalm 50 God is speaking, and He states that He does not desire any blood from a goat or bull, but He does want the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? How can we give the sacrifice of thanksgiving? Not only is this a somewhat obtuse thing to sacrifice, we don’t normally think of thanksgiving as something we sacrifice.

As children, our parents should have taught us to give thanks for something that was done for us. Your mom or dad would say, “What do you say now, Billy?” and you would follow with, “Thank you for the gift, Mrs. Smith.” The very fact that we have to be taught to do this implies that giving thanks is not something we would naturally do unless we are taught to do it.

“Thanksgiving,” the word “giving” is half of the word. Children love the phrase “mine” and use it quite frequently when other kids are around. So why does God want the “sacrifice of thanksgiving”? He wants us to honor Him, and the only way to honor Him is with thanksgiving and praise. Left up to ourselves, we would never do this because our carnal nature prohibits us from being sacrificial at all. Our carnal nature says the opposite of sacrifice, it moves and grows in greed and pride.

Giving a sacrifice of thanksgiving says that you put pride and greed in their place and hold up the Lord in His proper place. If this were easy, it would not be called a “sacrifice.” Today, take some time to ponder and thank the Lord for all He has done in your life. Listen to testimonies of Christians, you cannot have a testimony without a sacrifice of thanksgiving. God directs us to sacrifice and to give a sacrifice of thanksgiving because you are most like Christ when you thank our Father for all He has done. Be thankful, it may just be the medicine you need, the one you have always had but never sacrificed.

Prayer: I pray that we all give the sacrifice of thanksgiving every day. I pray that we would not only give You thanks, but I pray that we would even thank You for the trials. Father, help us to push past our understanding and press on toward Your will and Your understanding, giving You the sacrifice of thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name, amen.