NIV Once-A-Day Bible Worship and Praise DevotionalSample

It is one thing to sit in church and sing the old hymn “Take My Life, and Let It Be” — ​to pledge your silver and gold, to offer God your hands and will. It is another thing altogether to hear God tell you to offer your child to him. This was Abraham’s situation. After waiting many, many decades for God to give him a son, imagine how he felt when called to sacrifice that son. This scene shocks us with its blunt and sobering truth: God will have no rivals. If the great treasure of our hearts is not God, then he will demonstrate that he is all we need by making sure that he is all we have. Ironically, it is in these dark moments that we discover that he is all we need and that nothing else can ever truly satisfy. What will it mean for you to make your heart God’s throne? Take time to assess any activities or even relationships that are threatening to replace God as the top priority in your life. Offer these to God as an act of obedient sacrifice. Make me willing, O God, to . . .