"Not for your sacrafices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forrest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrafice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

The sacrafice of bulls and goats was not what God was looking for. I think alot of the things we bring before God today look alot like those sacrafices. Yes, they are continually being brought before God, but are they more than mere rituals? Outward motions with no service from the heart? Giving to God as if we could help him out?

But I see a shift in the things that God asks for instead of the sacrafices. "Offer to God a sacrafice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble..." Instead of the focus being on what I can do for God, it shifts onto what God has done for me. Bring the sacrafice of thanksgiving for what he has done and for who he is. Fulfill vows because of how he has acted on your behalf. Call out to Him in dependance for what he will do.

Why does God desire so much that a thanksgiving sacrafice be brought before him? I beleive that thanksgiving is surrender. It is a heart attitude of acceptance to the will of God. Thanksgiving is acknowledging God's Sovereinty and goodness in every circumstance and putting myself in submission under his plan. Thanksgiving gives the credit to God for his work that he has done.

Giving thanks shifts the focus off of me and onto God. It's not about what I can do, but about what he has done, is doing, and will continue to do. My life ought to be poured out as an offering of thanksgiving to God.