Personally, I don't like things that smell bad. If you have visited my room, you would have noticed my room has an electrical diffuser which you plug into a socket and the room would be filled with fragrance. Even for myself, I will be upset if I smell bad that day (hence you probably would find some deodorant in my bag :P).
"They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God." (Philippians 4:18b)
God likes fragrance.
Now, I am not saying that God would smell the odour produced by our body and that we should all go and buy some perfume. The fragrant offering comes from act of service. However, God doesn't necessarily like ANY act of service. Take the Cain and Abel story as an example. God looked with favour on Abel's offering, but didn't like Cain's. Why? Abel offered the best of his flocks to God as sacrifice yet Cain just gave God some of the fruits he had. Cain didn't give his best to God.
Same applies today. God is the God of the entire universe, He lacks nothing. He doesn't need our sacrifices. But He wants us to offer our best to Him - He wants to be our first priority. We have a relationship with God, hence offering our best to Him would not be an unreasonable request because He deserves the best. In fact, we would want to or even have the urge to give Him the best all the time if we really love Him. Just think from the reverse side. When you love someone, you would not want him/her to give you the things that he/she has and keep his/her best for other purposes.
I don't know about you, but this verse makes me think about my life. Did I give God my best? Sometimes I am like Cain, offering some of the things that I have to God, but not the best. For example, quite often I do my devotion at night when I am absolutely shattered by things happening during the day and spend time with God with my leftover energy.
Hmm maybe I should start thinking changing my devotion time.
Let's offer our best to God. God will take it all in.
Shalom.
T
