God cannot be cheated!

<sup>Have you ever been cheated out of something? I bet it didn't make you feel happy, did it? I know that when this has happened to me I certainly felt indignant, angry and a lot less "Christ-like." In the opening verses of Malachi God quickly gets to his point - He is angry with the Israelites (actually more with the Priests), because they have short-changed him. The reason for his anger is clear in these words:

"</sup>A son honours his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honour due to me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due to me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name" - Malachi 1:6 

God feels cheated.
God has not been rightly honoured.
God has been disrespected.  

The Priests were offering God "second-rate" offerings and hoping God wouldn't notice. They sacrificed blind, sick, lame and blemished offerings as their act of worship and so God rightly calls them out!

This Advent season, let us check our hearts as we worship our Lord. We don't need to bring animal sacrifices to the throne of grace, but we do bring our hearts. God is not fooled by our "short-cuts" and lame excuses. God desires the absolute best that we can give. 

So how about it!? What is stopping us?

Living in Grace
D3LM3