A Living Sacrifice

God is good, He is sovereign, He is faithful and He is a God who desires us to be FULLY dependent upon him and satisfied 100% in Him. Living in today's world, and encased in a fleshly body this is not the easiest reality in the world. We consistently find ourselves compromising and justifying the very things we know to be disobedient to God and grieve the Spirit within us. We live in a way that is contrary to the very words we speak; we say we trust God and yet we don't always exemplify that in every area of our lives. Head knowledge is one thing, but heart transformation is completely different. True sanctification happens within the heart not within the mind. True sanctification changes you, it refines you, it models you after Jesus Christ and as Romans 12 says it TRANSFORMS you so that you can discern what is the good and pleasing will of God for YOUR life...His GOOD AND PERFECT will!

I seem to always find myself questioning God's will for my life, His perfect and good will SPECIFIC for me. And I find myself failing to trust, to really trust that will. But why? God's will is good. Why is it good? Because God is the definition of good, He encompasses every aspect of what it means to be good after all, HE IS PERFECT. Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." God's plan for His kids lives is not one that is going to disappoint, confuse, and make you unhappy...GOD LOVES YOU (if you are His child)! Life is full of God's special blessings, His surprises. God knows exactly what He is doing, He doesn't make mistakes, He doesn't confuse us, He doesn't have plans to harm us but rather as Jeremiah 29 says plans to prosper us, to give us a future and a hope. And yet we so easily forget to remember this, I so easily forget to remember this, and to live by this precious Truth of Scripture, of our perfect Father.

Romans 12 is an amazingly encouraging passage. In v 1-2 we read, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." What does this even mean? How do we offer our body as a "living sacrifice"? The Geneva study Bible puts it well, "the principal of which is this, that every man consecrate himself wholly to the spiritual service of God, and do as it were sacrifice himself, trusting the grace of God." It is something that a Christian does, this isn't a standard for some super Christian, or for the disciples or the pastors, no it is a call, a command for EVERY follower of Jesus Christ! It is interesting that He is using the word "urge" or "beseech" because it is not a command but rather a loving exhortation. For the last 11 chapters Paul has laid out doctrine and he is saying therefore now that I have told you all these things I am begging you to live your life as a sacrifice to the Lord. And why do we do this? Because all that God has done for you, in light of everything He has done, in the reality of who you are in Christ, the fact that you are ALREADY acceptable, you are ALREADY holy and blameless because of Christ! And He wants YOU to be a living sacrifice willing to pay a supreme price for him, your whole life...everything about it, in light of who He is and what Christ did! John Macarthur said it well, "The issue isn’t, can I at one time die for Jesus; it’s, can I everyday, everyday, everyday sacrifice my dreams, my hopes, my will, my wants for his. See? It’s a living sacrifice: I bring my body into submission to his will… A living sacrifice. That’s what God wants out of us, beloved. May it be so."

All in all, why do we waste our time worrying, not trusting or trying to figure out what God wants in 20 years from now? We need to heed James exhortation in 4:13-15 "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." We must focus on today, on living our lives as a sacrifice today, in letting God sanctify and refine you today, and in fully depending on and trusting God TODAY. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to an all knowing God!