HOW CAN WE KNOW THAT GOD WILL ACCEPT OUR WORSHIP?

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to know whether God enjoyed our worship, or offering, as good children of a loving Father? Yes, of course! Love is the foundation of our connection with God, thus we want to do everything in our power to please Him because He is deserving of our true devotion.
More than anything, we desire to give Him our whole attention and submission as our Lord.

Consider this: suppose we run a restaurant and one day, God appears to us (of course, in human form) to pick up some meals.

Naturally, the first thing you would want to know is what God really wants, once you’ve recovered from the fantasy of having such a famous person visit, right?
No, you won’t just walk into the kitchen and start preparing anything you feel is appropriate for Him. If you don’t give God exactly what He wants to eat, you can have an unhappy customer and an unfinished leftover.
Therefore, you would want to make sure you prepare and serve the precise meal He ordered if He (God) wants something different from what is listed on your menu. And the reason for this is that you want to appease Him because your business success ultimately depends on Him.

Now, let’s take a look at the Bible.
In Leviticus 2: 1-9, you would observe how specific God was in prescribing the ingredients of a grain offering.
Notice verse 9 says:
“[9]The priest will take a representative portion of the grain offering and burn it on the altar. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”

Notice it said, “It is a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” If we were to accidentally add a small amount of yeast to the grain offering, would the aroma still be pleasant? No, is the response! Why, you would wonder? Let’s examine verse 12: Leviticus 2:12.

“The first crops of your harvest may be offered with honey and yeast, but they must never be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.”

Whoa, that can’t ever be offered as a pleasant scent on the altar. It follows that God finds it unacceptable.

Let’s examine the story of Cain and Abel found in Genesis 4:7.

If you follow the proper path, you’ll be accepted. However, be careful if you choose not to follow the moral path.

What led to this?
In the preceding verses, specifically in verses 3,4 & 5:
Genesis 4:3-5
“[3]When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.
[4]Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift,
[5]but He did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.”

We can see from the few paragraphs above that God has the right to reject an offering if it is not made in accordance with His instructions.

Knowing what is acceptable to God as a praise and/or worship offering is crucial because of this.

As the ultimate sacrifice of the blood of our Savior—Jesus—was offered up on our behalf once and for all for the atonement of sin, Christians do not offer grain sacrifices or sacrifices of bulls and rams in the New Testament.

“So we no longer offer up a steady stream of blood sacrifices, but through Jesus, we will offer up to God a steady stream of praise sacrifices—these are “the lambs” we offer from our lips that celebrate his name!” Hebrews 13: 15 TPT

The Amplified Classic version even renders it more elaborately:

“Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.”

This means what God really accepts as worship is us saying words (fruit of our lips) that do the following:

• Thankfully Acknowledge His Name and What He Has Done For Us
• Confess His Name
• Glorify His Name, Magnify His Works and Greatness

So, do you want to know if the last time you offered your sacrifice of worship unto God, God accepted it? Let’s do a checklist:

□ Did your words thankfully acknowledge God’s name?
□ Did your words confess (admit, believe in, or reveal) His name?
□ Did your words glorify His name?
If your worship offering checked all of the above, then your sacrifice to the Lord, was a worthy, pleasant, and accepted one. Hallelujah!