Sacrifice

This past week has been a very interesting week for me to say the least. I had to give up something that was great in my life. But the reason I had to give it up was so that somebody else could further glorify God. Now, if you have ever been in this predicament, you know that it is a bittersweet feeling. You know you want to glorify God in all that you do, but you know that you don't want to let go of something that you thought was in God's will and also something that makes you happy. Recently I was leading a Jr. High small group and we were talking about Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make, even though it was his only son. Think about giving up something so important to you that you know you could not stand to let it go. You would hate it wouldn't you? Now think about giving it up to glorify God. Does it make it any more appealing? If your answer was no, then in my opinion, you are not of the right mindset to even be sacrificing. However, if your answer was yes, then it is truly in your heart that you want to please God in everything you do. Making sacrifices to God will not always be easy, and I am not saying that you will always enjoy it. However, the pleasure that your true sacrifices bring to God should make you want to do it all the more. It is not about the sacrifice. If it were, it would be about you. It is about the heart behind the sacrifice. This makes it about God and about an act of worship rather than an act of religion and legalism. It is so easy to say the words to God..."I surrender." However, the action that follows is not easy. The action is what makes it count. The action is what gives it meaning. The action shows whether it has truly been laid at His feet or whether it was laid there for a moment but then picked back up again the moment we feel it is out of our hands and out of our control. Jesus does not want our words (our burnt offerings) He wants our hearts, because out of the heart flows what is really meaningful to the person. We also need to think of the ultimate sacrifice that both Jesus the Son, and God the Father made when Jesus came to earth and laid down his life as a living sacrifice for our iniquities. Can any earthly sacrifice we make even begin to compare to this? NO! Then why do we find it so hard to sacrifice things that will eventually fade? Why is it that we can't just glorify God in everything we do? Why is it that we keep on doing the wrong we know we should not be doing, when the good that God wants us to do is so much more important? This is part of this struggle. Why can't I just glorify God and lay it all at his feet? The lyrics of Carl Cartee in his song "Honestly" best describes how I feel. "Could I let go of all that you've given, if it meant that it all would be yours? Could I sit at your feet and forget about me, and remember what I'm here for?" It is all His! None of it is ours. Not our hard earned money. Not our time. Not our lives. So why, if God sacrificed His only son, can we not sacrifice stuff that doesn't even belong to us? I think to glorify God in everything, we need to realize that nothing we have is ours. Nothing we do is by our strength. Only when we come to this very humbling realization can we truly lay it all at His feet. Only then can we glorify Him in true sacrifice. This is not to say we need to be perfect or anywhere close to it to make true sacrifice. Far from it! This is saying that when we realize that it is by Him that we do all things will we be able to have the strength through Him to lay it down. Permanently.