Here we are waking up to another day filled with tasks, chores and expectations. It’s a Tuesday and we have places to go, things to do, boxes to check. That seems uninspiring, unimpressive, and honestly unfulfilling. We live for those grander days of more exciting plans, but today may not be one of those days.
But, what if how you live this ordinary day says everything about your commitment to God? What if these tasks and chores are your sacrifice, and the attitude with which you do them all is your worship?
Before the sacrifice of Jesus, followers of God offered animal and harvest sacrifices. These were very elaborate and specific ceremonies requiring detailed preparation. Our God is a god of details. Everything matters. Everything counts. Everything is meaningful.
1 Chronicles 23:29 tells of the duties of the Levites assisting in this preparation: “They were in charge of the bread set out on the table, the special flour for the grain offerings, the thin loaves made without yeast, the baking and the mixing, and all measurements of quantity and size.”
Yawn. What a boring and unimpressive job. They didn’t get to wear the fancy clothes. They didn’t get to stand on important stages and speak important words. They were in the kitchen measuring, mixing and baking. But understand, this was THEIR SACRIFICE. Showing up and doing the unimpressive duties behind the scenes was THEIR WORSHIP.
It sounds like chores. It looks like chores. I bet it felt like chores. But it was their attitude toward those chores that made it acceptable worship to God.
And guess what, Sis, it is your attitude toward the ordinary things you do on the daily that either make it a chore or make it worship. You’re sacrificing, but are you worshiping?
Romans 12:1 MSG is likely the most practical scripture you will ever read. “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”
These things you do today, will they be just to get them done, or will they be the action of you embracing all God has done for you?
God gives you a family, then guess what … you get to clean up after that family. You get to haul that family around to their umpteen million practices, games, and events. You get to cook endless meals for that family and wash mountains of laundry. It sounds like chores. It looks like chores. I know if feels like chores. But your attitude toward those chores can make it acceptable worship to God. Embracing what he has done for you and taking care of all that comes with these gifts is the best thing you can do for God.
God gives you a job. A job that literally pays you money to show up. After a bit of time in this job, it feels less like an opportunity, and more like work. You’re doing the equivalent of measuring, mixing and baking just like the Levites were doing for the sacrifice. No one praises your excellent job of mixing. No one made a big to-do over how you laid that bread on the table, or made those phone calls, or balanced those books, or managed your people. There was no praise for any of that. Did anyone even notice your work? But have you forgotten this is a job given to you by God to provide for you? Check your attitude, Sis. Your attitude is either making this job into dreadful work, or it is a living sacrifice to your Provider.
You can spend your days being miserable. That is an option. In fact, it’s a widely popular option. But it sucks. It sucks the joy right out of your spirit. It sucks the energy right out of your bones. It sucks the life right out of your breath. And it just leaves you feeling exhausted. Misery is not what you were created for … but maybe the chore of gathering, measuring, mixing, baking, and setting it all out is what you’re created for. Maybe this unimpressive duty is by the design of the Almighty. Maybe this is your sacrifice.
But let me tell you straight up, God can’t receive your sacrifice as worship if you have a piss poor attitude about it.
Imagine the Levites in the back rooms of the temple complaining about the wheat. Imagine them throwing around their little measuring cups with an attitude to make it real clear they’re not happy being the ones stuck with this job. Imagine them making that bread with haste, just wishing they could do something bigger, something better, something more praiseworthy. Now how could that bread possibly be a pleasing sacrifice to God? How could it be offered as something holy?
Why were they the ones stuck in the kitchen? Afterall, earlier in this chapter we read the division of jobs. 1 Chronicles 23: 3-5 “All the Levites who were thirty years old or older were counted, and the total came to 38,000. Then David said, “From all the Levites, 24,000 will supervise the work at the Temple of the Lord. Another 6,000 will serve as officials and judges. Another 4,000 will work as gatekeepers, and 4,000 will praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have made.”
The measuring, the mixing, the baking, this was the work at the Temple of the Lord. 24,000 were assigned this job. Would they have rather been the ones chosen as judges? How about the ones who were the gatekeepers, that sounds like a better job. Or wow, to be part of the smaller group chosen to just play music. Why couldn’t they play their drums all day? (There was a song in the 80’s that said “I don’t want to work. I want to bang on the drum all day.” For real, what if they didn’t want to work? What if they wanted to bang on their drum?)
Sometimes we look around and want the role others have been chosen for. We wonder why are where we are, doing what we’re doing, and they get to be where they are doing what they’re doing. And I assure you, none of this is a pleasing sacrifice to God. For it to be a sacrifice, it must be a sacrifice. A literal offering of your time. A challenge of some sorts. A stretch of your will. Without that stretch, it’s not a sacrifice, it’s a hobby.
Colossians 3: 23-24 MSG “Don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. ”
How are you offering your time today? What challenges and stretches you? What is it that you need to keep a good attitude about today? Don’t allow your sacrifice to go wasted. This can be your worship! This can be your offering to God, embracing all he has done for you. but without your right attitude, it’s all just chores. It’s all just boxes to be checked, and no worship to be offered.
These Levites chosen for the temple work recognized their valued role in the process of worship. They knew their sacrifice was a worthy sacrifice. And their attitude in the process qualified it as worship.
Colossians 3: 25 MSG “Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.”
What this is saying is, hey your bad attitude about this isn’t made okay just because you love Jesus. You might know this is a blessing from God, but the way you’re handling this blessing is taking the blessing right out of it.
Maybe it’s not your work load that needs to change, it’s how you carry that work load. Carry this with grace, Sis, not with grumbling. This can be your praise, or this can be your pain. Here is your worthy sacrifice, or here is your senseless work.
Remember today, this can be your offering before God. How you do this is how you worship Him.
Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com