SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 13
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. [Hebrews 13:16]
The letter finishes with practical encouragement for God-appropriate living.
This is connected to what was written earlier in the letter, the old testament sacrificial system.
Here doing good and sharing with others is described as a God-pleasing sacrifice.
This is really what God is looking for, what He created us for.
The sacrifices and other laws were intended to be symbols and reminders of this kind of life: humility, honesty, wholeheartedness, generosity, self-denial.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. [Psalms 51:16-17]

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. [Matthew 23:23-24]
Jesus challenges the Jewish religious leaders for focusing more on the symbols than on the realities those symbols pointed to: justice, mercy, faithfulness.
For with such sacrifices God is pleased!
Too often we mistake ‘religion’ with the real thing; the writer has been showing that all the symbols and rituals could not help us, only Jesus can.
He has revealed what the law was pointing to, the life that pleases God.
This is the life that we were created for, that we are called to live now, and will live with God forever.

So the essence of faith, then, is not religious ritual or ceremony, it is a love for God that translates into a life of love and obedience before God and others – in terms of marriage, submission to our leaders, kindness to strangers, support for prisoners, etc. (the practical matters addressed).
This is what we need to focus on, what we should not forget.
At the end of the day, or the end of the year, or the end of our lives, this is what God is looking for.
We finish this year with a New Year’s prayer: May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. [Hebrews 13:20-21]

PRAYER:
Lord, help me to fix my eyes on You, and on the life that You saved me for. Help me not to be religious, help me to love You and people, in practical, tangible ways.