Is sacrificing an animal to God as thanksgiving out of my personal will wrong?
To answer your good question, let’s start by reading Hebrews 10:5-6, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.” The sacrifice of animals never pleased the Lord for the taking away of sins. These sacrifices were used to illustrate what the Lord Jesus would do when He came into the world.
Let’s continue to read in Hebrews 10:10-12, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. It is the “offering of the body of Jesus Christ” that satisfies God for the putting away of our sins. In fact, it is said that these sacrifices “can never take away sins.”
To please the Lord, we must give Him what He desires of us. Otherwise, we are simply doing what we wish to do. That which is done or offered to the Lord from the flesh is condemned and warned against in Colossians 2:23, “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”
What can we give to the Lord that will please Him? As believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, we can please the Lord by worshipping Him according to the truth of who and what He is. We read in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.” Our worship to the Lord must also be born out of a humble spirit. Psalm 51:17 tells us, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” We read in Hebrews 13:15-16, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” True praise to the Lord, giving thanks, doing good, sharing with other…these are sacrifices that will please the Lord.
We can please the Lord by gathering often will fellow believers as we read in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” We please Him when we seek to gather to the Lord alone and accept the reproach that comes from being His follower. Hebrews 13:13 instructs us, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”
We can know how to please the Lord by searching the scriptures, learning more of Him and how He would have us to live. By learning His Word, we learn how to please Him. 2 Timothy 2:4 says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; THAT HE MAY PLEASE HIM who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
To seek to please the Lord by doing our own will can only bring about failure and disappointment. I am thrilled that your desire is to please Him. Search the scriptures to find out what pleases Him and do that…not things of your own thinking. (454.2)