A living sacrifice

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." -Romans 12:1-2

These are some of the key verses that my co-leader and I have been teaching our small group of third grade girls at BASSYCS on Wednesday nights.  Last week, we defined the word sacrifice and had the girls share some ways that they could be a living sacrifice for God as third graders, whether that be in their class or at home.  My co-leader and I both shared ways that we could sacrifice for God.  The struggle that I had mention was reading my Bible, something that honestly should not really have been a sacrifice anyway.  We left our group with a challenge to find one way to be a living sacrifice over the week, and then we would share about it on the next Wednesday.  The week went on, and I knew that I should probably "sacrifice" and read my Bible at some point.  Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....an hour before a group I pulled out my Bible, read a good 3 verses and headed to BASSYCS.

Clearly, this is not the sacrifice that Paul was talking about in Romans.  In fact, Paul wasn't talking about ONE sacrifice.  He wasn't talking about a specific action that we could do "for God" even though we didn't want to.  Paul calls us to be a living sacrifice, and this is how we are to worship God.

As I recognize the places in my life where I have been the exact opposite of a living sacrifice in my life and begin to cut them out, I am unbelievably broken.  I am torn between my wants and God's, but there is one thing that I know above all else.  I am God's and I want to be His above anything else in my life.  If there is anything that is in the way of my walk with Him, I cannot move forward.

So here I am, broken but joyful.  Knowing that any suffering that I am experiencing is because of my own sinful choices, but so thankful that the Lord of heaven and earth, the perfect spotless one, merciful, gracious God loves me. He loves me more than I could ever comprehend.  This is me.  I'm ready to start over.  I'm ready to, with the help of my Savior, be a living sacrifice for Him.

Here am I, Lord.
Forgive me.
Transform me.
Renew my mind.
Make me a living sacrifice for You.