Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
In 1 Sam. 15, God commanded King Saul to utterly destroy Amalek and not to spare anyone or anything. But Saul and the people spared King Agag, the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good and were unwilling to utterly destroy them as they wanted to sacrifice them to the LORD at Gilgal. In God’s sight, Partial obedience is Disobedience. God delights in Implicit obedience than in sacrifices. Disobedience is an act of rebellion, sinful, form of Idolatry, disrespects God’s word, it is based on looking good to people rather than to God. In our human attempts to look good in serving God, there is the temptation to perform certain religious duties rather than to truly obey God. Even good activities such as giving money to charity etc. are not as important to God as obeying His commands.
Let us examine ourselves before we sacrifice our time, talent, treasures, and if God is reminding you of any sinful habit, behavior, thoughts, actions, with the help of the Holy Spirit, utterly destroy them and offer yourselves as a Living Sacrifice which is a sweet-smelling aroma unto the LORD.
“A ton of prayer will not produce what an ounce of obedience will.” – Ed Cole