Living Sacrifice

"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. Do 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 in - His good, pleasing, and perfect will." -Romans 12:1-2

   I have been crying out to God a lot lately. Initially it was mostly asking Him to take pain from me, but it became more of an acknowledgement that His will is sovereign, with a small request at the end. Something along the lines of this: "Lord, I know this is Your plan, and I'm ok with that. Because ultimately Your plan is best and my entire life is for Your glory. But... if by any chance your will for my life could include _____, that would be really great... If not, that's fine too. I mean, You know best."
   This morning in church, our speaker was teaching on the verses I quoted up above. And as I rolled those verses over and over in my mind, they really began to sink in.
    Especially the part about being a "living sacrifice" for God. Ironically, (more like my God's doing) I was reading in 1 Chronicles after church. In chapter 21 David sins against God by counting how many soldiers he has. God sends 3 days of plagues, but as His destroying angel is sweeping through Jerusalem, He is overwhelmed with sadness for His people, and halts the angel. Then He tells David to go up to the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (where the destroying angel stopped), and build an alter to Him. So King David goes over there and tells Araunah that He wants to buy the land to build an alter to the Lord. Araunah says "Here take it! You don't need to pay me. I'll even provide the wood and the oxen at no cost!" And David says in verse 24 "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that cost me nothing." And this is what I gathered from all this: If we are truly offering our lives as living sacrifices, it is going to cost us. It is not going to be painless, it is not going to be easy.
   Another thing about being a living sacrifice is that it's not a one time sacrifice. It is a constant  action of giving your life, your possessions, your friendships, your money, your plans, your future to God and saying "Take this and use it for Your glory."

~Melody