Living Sacrifice - A Biblical Truth
As Christians, we're called to give ourselves to God as a "living sacrifice."
The Apostle Paul helps us understand this truth in his letter to the believers
in Rome:
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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)
Living Sacrifice - Dying to Self
So, how do we truly present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice? In a
nutshell, we must die to our prior selves. This concept is wonderfully presented
in this anonymous poem…
When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't
sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy being counted worthy
to suffer for Christ;
When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are
crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let
anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient,
loving silence;
When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any
irregularity, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly,
extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did;
When you are content with any food, and offering, any
raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of
God;
When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or
record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love
to be unknown;
When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met,
and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God,
while your own needs are far greater and you are in desperate circumstances;
When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less
stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly,
finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart;