Sacrifice a.k.a. consideration continued

Earlier this week I was reading in a devotional book called, 'The Word For You Today' - Wednesday, February 23rd and I came accross the following and it seemed to fit in with the sacrifice/consideration subject for this month. The verse was Psalm 100:2 which reads, 'Serve the Lord with gladness...' Further along in the devotion it states, "When you come to believe, really believe that service is God working through you..." There is more to that sentence, but that portion of it really struck me. I did not realize that our service we are offering to God now, is God working through us. I was thinking that as we serve; God would use us occasionally to impact someone around us as we worked. I did not realize that our service/sacrifice is God using us now. I guess I was thinking that our usefulness was measured by the outcomes, or the reactions of the people around us. However, I realized that we are to do our part and serve God, how others respond or don't respond is between that person and God.

As I was mulling that over I was flipping through the Bible and I came accross Proverbs 1:19. This verse says, "When you grab all you can get, that's what happens: the more you get, the less you are." (The Message Bible) I thought, wow how true that is. The more we hold back and don't sacrifice for others, the more we become dissatisfied with ourselves, and even discontented and disappointed in ourselves. 'The less we are.' So God has arranged for us to receive a double blessing. As we serve/sacrifice for others we get the additional blessing of contentment. Wow! God is good!