Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 27

What is better?

• When someone does something for you out of obligation or does something for you out of generosity?
• When someone does something because you tell them to or because they want to?
• When someone does the bare minimum or goes above and beyond?
• When someone does something and brags about it or something that has been done and is a mystery as to how it happened?
• When someone gives you something because you asked for it or someone who gives you something because they want you to have it?

I think you will make the same choices as I would – they seem obvious. As I was reading the 27th Chapter of Leviticus it seemed as though this chapter was out of place. Then I realized that in all of the preceding chapters of this book, God had mandated laws, while in chapter 27 the laws given are voluntary – It’s like an addendum that God is saying, “Not because you have to, but if you want to.”

It’s Thanksgiving morning and I am reflecting on all of the blessings that I have in my life. Then I take all of my blessings and correlate what God is trying to teach me in Chapter 27. Here is my conclusion…

We aren’t bound by those same laws because we live Leviticus Chapter 27 kind of lives.

• God gave us His son to die on the cross for our sin; not because we we told him too, but Jesus is God’s gift to us.
• We do not nor should we live our lives out of obligation, but because we love Him.
• We live by the law, not because He commands us to, but because we want to honor Him for what He has done for us.
• We can go through the motions of living a Christian life or we can live humbly, as if we don’t deserve what Jesus did for us on the cross.
• We can surrender our lives as an act of worship and live each day in gratitude and thanksgiving or we can work hard at living a perfect life, only to fall short and grow defeated.

On this Thanksgiving day, as you are taking an inventory of all of your blessings, please don’t neglect to recognize that loving God and how we love God is voluntarily. He doesn’t command it – it’s optional, just like the laws in chapter 27 are optional. We do it because we want to, choose to, and desire to.

May God bless you and your family abundantly on this day of Thanksgiving.