THURSDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2019.
SUBJECT: SACRIFICE YOURSELF TO GOD!
Memory verse: ""Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10 vs 22.)
READ: Romans 12 vs 1 - 2:
12:1: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
12:2: And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
INTIMATION:
God desires our obedience from the heart, hence the apostle Paul urges believers to offer themselves as living sacrifices—daily laying aside our own desires to follow Him, putting all our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us. That obedient heart of worship is a true heart toward God with full assurance and conviction in Him. It is the heart of total surrender to God. To surrender means to yield. Many people have always viewed the act of surrendering as being intimidated to submission, implying losing, and no one wants to be a loser. The word is almost always used in a negative context. But surrendering to God is yielding to Him, and this is the heart of worship. It is the natural response to God's amazing love and mercy. We give ourselves to Him, not out of fear or duty, but in love, "because He first loved us." (See First John 4 vs 9 - 10; 19).
After spending eleven chapters of the Book of Romans explaining God's incredible grace to us, the apostle Paul urges us to fully sacrifice our lives to God in worship. True worship—bringing God pleasure—happens when you give yourself completely to God. Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about. God has good, acceptable, and perfect plans for his children. He wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds to honor and obey Him. Because He only wants what is best for us, and because He gave His Son to make our new lives possible we should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifice for His service.
This act of “living sacrifice” or “personal surrender” is called many things: consecration, making Jesus your Lord, taking up your cross, dying to self, yielding to the Spirit. What matters is that you do it, not what you call it. God wants your life—all of it, ninety nine percent is not enough, but all. There are three identified barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, and confusion. These barriers make us not to realize how much God loves us, consequently, we want to control our own lives, and misunderstand the meaning of surrender.
To sacrifice your life to God is not always easy or comfortable. Often it means great cost and sacrifice, with no earthly rewards or security. For instance, Jesus didn’t have a place to call home. You may find that following God costs you popularity, friendship, leisure time, or treasured habits. But while the cost of following God is high, the value of being His disciple is even higher. Discipleship is an investment that lasts for eternity and yields incredible rewards. We should be willing to give up anything if God asks us to do so. This kind of attitude allows nothing come between us and God and keeps us from using our God-given wealth selfishly.
Let us not lose sight of the end result of all our humility and self-sacrifice—a joyous banquet with our Lord! God never asks us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He never asks us to give up something good unless He plans to replace it with something even better. Jesus is not calling us to join Him to a labor camp but in a feast—the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19 vs 6 - 9), when God and His beloved church will be joined forever.
Prayer: Abba Father, Yours I am, and Yours I want to be, use me as is pleasing to You, in Jesus’ Name I prayed. Amen.
PRAISE THE LORD!
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