Scripture: Psalm 69:30-31
I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
    This will please the Lord more than an ox, purchase
    more than a bull with its horns and hooves.

Thought for the Day: There are a lot of sacrificial offerings in the Bible, and for a long time, people have read these texts and presumed the offering was all about the physical sacrifice. But the ancient understanding of sacrifice was much deeper. An offering to God was from the soul, a change in a person’s mental and spiritual state. Thanksgiving is an attitude, not an offering.

We give thanks to God by acting like beings made in the image of God. We give thanks when we act with justice, compassion, love, and respect. These righteous actions are the only offering God needs. Sure, you can sacrifice a bull or an ox if you like, I suppose (just check the laws in your state), but the point of this psalm is, if you’re sacrificing the animal without any love or contrition in your heart, without any sense that you can send the regrets in your soul to God, then the sacrifice is an empty act.

I might suggest, you can send thanks, and regret, and hopes, and dreams, and fears, and everything else to God by simply closing your eyes and experiencing God. No ox or bull required.

Prayer: Thank you, Holy Lord, for the incredible blessings in my life. Thank you simply for life, this crazy, roller-coaster of a ride. May every experience I have be an offering of thanks to you. Amen.