An aroma pleasing to the Lord

Think for a moment about yourself. Think about those awful times when you lose it, those choices you wish you never made, those thoughts and feelings that run through your head that you hate. No one wants to be portrayed at their worst.

Stay there a minute. Realize that God sees you all the time. He knows your choices. He knows your heart. He knows you need to be rescued, and He provided Jesus so you could be. Jesus trades His life for yours. When God looks at you, He sees His Son, but it's not like He's tricked into thinking you are someone else. He knows what that blood covers, and He declares this is good. He has atoned for you.

His purpose is not to make you look good. He wants to bring glory to Himself. Our job, as believers, is to not try to be perfect, but to take our hangups to Him and let Him atone for them. And then we sing, because He is a good, good God.

At a funeral on Wednesday, the preacher recounted a question someone had asked him: what does God do with all the stuff we bring Him? If we are supposed to bring Him our problems and failures and worries, what does He do with it? Revelation 5:8 says that our prayers are incense rising up before Him. Maybe all the things we lay at His feet get burned up, like a sacrifice on an Old Testament altar. Leviticus describes the sacrifices we bring to the Lord, and this concept is repeated over and over again: "Then Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering that is lying on the burning wood; it is a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord" (Leviticus 3:5).

If He does not remember our sins, but removes them as far as the east is from the west, then I think the things we take to Him are burned up, and they please Him--just because we hand them over. Our good deeds don't stockpile and make Him happy. Truthfully, our goodness needs to be burned before Him as well. All of me, everything I am, needs the covering of Jesus' blood.

Romans 12:1 says I should make myself a living sacrifice. Today, declare His truth over all of your problems and worries. He knows you for who you really are, and He has a story to write about you that you are going to love, but He is the main character. Show off in me today, God.