Day 2898 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Romans 12:1 NIV

All from One, all for One. A living sacrifice.

Unfortunately, many times, if not most times in life, we don't see ourselves as such, and likely for many reasons. It's a strange concept for us to even consider let alone actively undertake. This idea of a 'living' sacrifice just comes across as yet another impossibility that we humans can't seem to make fit in our minds. Aren't sacrifices things that are lost, removed, killed? How then can we be 'living sacrifices'?

Well, it's found in what we discussed yesterday. It's our willingness to allow God to use us, our lives, our time, our story, even our suffering and bodily turmoil according to His will. It's humbly surrendering all of who we are, all of what we want, all of what we'd highly prefer in exchange for an excited eagerness to fulfill the opportunities granted us to show the world who God is.

But still, how do we do that? How do we show the world who our God is? How do we make our faith manifest in ways that are indisputable in a world that is ready to dispute everything?

We live. We live well. We respond well. We speak kindly and powerfully. We face trials with a steely resolve that most clearly comes from somewhere besides a fragile human courage. We stand our ground when most would rather run. We uphold the truth in the face of lies insurmountable. We proclaim Christ above all. And we do it all in both action and word.

That's what we discussed yesterday. It's this fact that each of us as Christians, if that is in fact who and what and why we choose to be while we're on this earth, then each of us are in fact preachers. We each have a message. We've each been granted a story filled with evidence of God's grace, healing, provision, mercy, and overflowing love. We have all been living our testimony, and that testimony is our sacrifice.

It's our sacrifice of comfort in exchange for experiencing His plans. It's sacrificing our preferences in order to focus on fulfilling His purposes. It's letting go of our innate desire to skip life's many storms and instead facing them boldly as we now know they allot us the opportunity to forge our faith and found our story upon a foundation not of our own creation or design.

We sacrifice, let go of, kill off this human adamancy to have an easy and comfortable life in exchange for a life filled with hardship and strife that presents us with an ongoing stage from which to shout the grace of God amidst circumstances that would leave most cowering, running, hiding in fear and anger.

It's through life's trials that we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. It's in following His calling to go to places along paths that we'd never choose to venture that we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. It's in standing up when others remain seated. It's speaking louder when the masses tell us to stay quiet. It's relentlessly sharing the truth of the Gospel in a place where it is still not welcome.

It's facing the hard days with a smile, the persecution with appreciation, and the misery with a resounding joy that simply doesn't make any sense to the irrational minds of those still lost.

But still, what I think we could all agree on is that that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case, at least not as often as it should. Instead, we still find ourselves fairly disappointed when life doesn't go our way. We still push back and balk a bit when He calls us to do something that we know will be hard and likely uncomfortable. We kind of lean away when push comes to shove and He hands us something we just don't really want to do or feel or experience or say.

I think the issue comes down to us focusing on the wrong half of what it is to be a 'living sacrifice'. We're too busy living. We're busy planning our lives. We're caught up and focused on ensuring our continued comfort through this foolish impression that we can somehow dictate outcomes and ensure our every goal and desire is met and fully satisfied.

In short, we are still in many ways our main focus, and when we are focused on us and doing what we want to do to make our lives what we want them to be, the entire idea of sacrificing any of those wonderful ideals just causes an enormous contention that leaves us sitting on the fence wondering where to go, what to do, who we are.

And it's that selfishness that defines the very thing that must be sacrificed in the lives and hearts and minds of any and all who truly wish to follow Christ. Because He is our example. He's our bar in which to aim and measure our growth. He is the footsteps, the blueprint, the roadmap leading us where He needs us to go and teaching us how to do what He needs us to do once we get there.

It’s in His life that we see what it is to be a living sacrifice. He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death upon a cross, in order to fulfill the perfect will of His Father. This too is what we are called to do. To allow God to do whatever He needs done in our lives, in our hearts, in our bodies as we fully trust in the purpose being fulfilled through our willingness to serve without restraint.

But if we're unwilling to humble ourselves to following His lead, to learning His lessons, to embracing a miniscule misery that is in reality only a shadow of what He endured, then how can we serve Him? How can proclaim the power of our faith when we ourselves aren't willing to step onto the raging seas that afford us the chance to fully experience it for ourselves? How can we share this Gospel that speaks of forgiveness and freedom bought by His sacrifice if we're not willing to sacrifice anything in return?

I was tossing this all around a little last night and I think our main problem comes down to a sense of distrust. Now, on the surface that likely sounds harsh if not entirely illogical. But think about it for a second. If every time He calls us to do something hard we pull back, are we not doubting in His ability to lead us? If we refuse to cut away the chaff collecting in our lives, are we not doubting that He will replace it with something else, something better? If we yell out at Him in anger for every hardship we face, aren’t we only saying we disagree with His purpose?

If He leads us into a fire, a battle, a prison and we respond with anger or frustration or complaint, are we not saying that we don't really trust His plans?

That's what it means to be a living sacrifice. It's to trust in things that don't make sense at the beginning. It's to believe that He has a plan that will work out for the good even when it doesn’t look or feel all that great as we walk it out. It's allowing ourselves to humbly walk the road He leads us down knowing that it's the fulfillment of His will that matters, and not our comfort along the way. It's found in realizing that we need life's trials and tribulations to give us the opportunities to grow our faith by actually having to live it.

To be a living sacrifice is to allow God to use us whenever, however, whyever He so chooses. It's giving Him the reigns and trusting that whatever He calls us to do is something that He needs done in order to do something good. If we truly believe that He is a loving, kind, generous, compassionate, powerful and providing God, then we should never doubt anything that comes our way as we should know that He's bringing for a reason, and that He will get us through it.

It may not be easy. It likely won't be comfortable. But sacrifice never is. What if every time we began to complain about something difficult we're going through, we looked to the cross and remembered what He went through for us? What if rather than doubting in His plans and the provision that will see them through, we recalled all that He's already done to secure our salvation?

Truth be told, we have all the reasons we need to fully trust in Him. We have no reason to suspect that this next challenge up ahead will be the one that He fails to get us through. We have no reason to deny that He is faithful and that His purposes are good because we've seen that fact unfold in our lives plenty of times. And if we have truly felt the joy and peace and hope provided by the power of the Gospel, then we should be willing, excited, enamored at the chance to tell everyone else.

As this verse closes out here in Romans 12, it speaks to something that we often undercut and sadly undervalue. Our worship. Our praise. Our honoring of the One who gave it all for us. If we hold back, hide in fear, run in doubt from the things He calls us to do simply because they're hard or uncomfortable or will undoubtedly bring strife from those around us, then we're not worshipping or honoring Him. We're just honoring our selfishness.

We can't worship Him if we're not willing to do what He calls us to do. We can't honor Him if we run from the tasks He's written into our stories. We can't fully proclaim the life-changing power of the Gospel if we still live in fear of walking a similar road to that that Christ walked for us.

In view of His mercy, we should know that we can trust Him with everything. That doesn't mean that everything needs to be easy. Doesn't mean that it all needs to make sense. It just means that we can present ourselves as a living sacrifice that we allow Him to use however He may choose. It just means that we are willing to go through whatever may come because we trust that He leads us to it for a reason that has something to do with His will.

And if we really wish to honor Him, to praise Him to worship and glory and revere Him, then knowing it's for His will is good enough. It's all the reason we need.

I'll be the first to admit that the life I've lived and the things I've done and the ways in which I've responded to life's trials is anything but a willing sacrifice. And I'd imagine that many others feel too that they are unable to be used for anything good after having lived so wrong for so long. But that's the testimony of our life. It's the story of who we once were and who He led us to be on this side of the cross.

It's about what He's done in our lives through our willingness to live for Him and sacrifice all that only distracts us from Him. Who we've been doesn't matter, that's part of our sacrifice. Letting go of who we once were, and letting go of who we'd still selfishly prefer to be. That is our only gift we can offer. That is our only sacrifice to give. To hand Him the rest of our time to use as He sees fit without question, hesitation or avoidance.

Each of us can in fact be used for the perfect will of God. But only when we lay it all down at His feet and let Him do whatever may need to be done. To surrender all we are for the use of His kingdom is undoubtedly our greatest purpose. Because when we remember that it is all from Him, and that it is all for Him, then and only then can we hold up our end of this bargain that has secured our eternal hope: To be a living sacrifice.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold