From the beginning, God’s desire has never been sacrifice. It has always been obedience.
In the Garden, God did not give humanity a system of good and bad to manage, nor did He ask them to prove their devotion through effort or performance. He gave a single instruction: obey. “Do not eat from this tree.”
The tree itself was the knowledge of good and evil, and in reaching for it, humanity revealed a pattern that continues to this day: the desire to define righteousness on our own terms rather than trust God’s voice. God’s invitation was simple: trust Me. But humanity reached instead for understanding, for control, for the ability to determine good and evil apart from Him.
This same tension appears later when the people received the Ten Commandments. They were not just seeking guidance; they were asking for a framework by which they could measure themselves. They wanted to manage righteousness rather than remain dependent on God’s voice. Yet God has never asked us to make ourselves righteous through understanding, effort, or sacrifice. He has always asked one simple question: Will you obey what I say?
There is a difference between sacrifice that flows from obedience, which delights the Lord, and sacrifice that tries to replace obedience, which He rejects. Obedience itself is a sacrifice unto the Lord. But performance-driven sacrifice—our time, effort, or visible goodness offered apart from His direction—is ultimately a sacrifice unto the world, and it will never be enough.
Our desire must be to please the heart of God, because we will never satisfy the needs or demands of man.
Psalm 40 captures this well: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened… I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” God doesn’t want empty sacrifices; He is after hearts that listen. This desire finds its perfect fulfillment in Jesus, who did only what He saw the Father doing.
1 Samuel 15:22 also states it plainly: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.” Sacrifice can become a way to feel righteous while still resisting God, but obedience requires the surrender of our will to His. As Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
This pattern of misplaced sacrifice is scattered throughout Scripture. God confronts it again in Isaiah 1:11, “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” In this passage, He was not rejecting sacrifice itself but exposing hearts that performed religious acts while being unwilling to follow His commands. The magnitude or impressiveness of the offering was irrelevant; obedience was what God desired.
Jesus addressed the same issue in Mark 7:6-13 when he confronted the Pharisees. They had created religious practices that looked holy but undermined God’s Word. Their sacrifices served their image, their system, and their flesh, but not the heart of God. Jesus said their worship was in vain because they elevated man-made practices over obedience to God.
We face the same temptation today. We can easily mistake busyness for faithfulness. The pressure to show up everywhere, meet every need, and be visibly compassionate is real, and it can pull us away from the specific obedience God is asking of us. The world’s applause is loud but short-lived. It will demand more and more, leaving us overextended, exhausted, and unavailable for the assignments God has prepared.
The world doesn’t care about our limits, our fatigue, or our calling, but God does. Obedience to God is quiet, simple, and specific. Blind sacrifice is loud, frantic, and endless.
Psalm 51 says the sacrifice God desires is a humble, surrendered heart. He has never been impressed by how much we do for Him; only by whether we are listening and obeying.
So, as we step into 2026, may we return to the same posture God invited humanity into from the beginning: simple obedience. One voice. One instruction. Trust Him. Listen closely. Follow faithfully.
Grace Waves 