DAILY DEVOTION - 19 OCTOBER 2020

Good morning. Peace be with you all. Rejoice in the Lord always. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." 1 Samuel 15:22.

Insight

Saul had been commanded to slay all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king, and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour's command is better than any outward form of religion.

Challenge

Today, if you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands, I pray you be disobedient no longer. "To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice,". Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of us His children is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! May God bless and protect you all. In Jesus mighty name. Amen.