A Living Sacrifice

I urge you . . . to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

Sacrificial living—giving up all you are and all you have as an offering to your Father—involves serving others, loving others, putting others before yourself, and living for God’s purposes. It’s really the ultimate, freeing, most alive way to live!

When you act as a living sacrifice, you turn away from self-focus and self-obsession. Suddenly you find yourself more able to live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23 NLT). This comes from daily “dying to yourself,” which, far from being painful, is more like an old husk falling away. As Jesus put it: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed” (John 12:24). When the kernel dies, it produces a thriving plant, which in turn “produces many seeds” (John 12:24).

This is the mystery and beauty of living a life like this: the more you pour yourself out in living sacrifice, the more God’s love pours into you. You are filled and refilled with the ceaseless, unstoppable, overflowing love of God that spills out into every life you touch.

God, what a privilege to show Your love to this world! Help me let my old kernel of self fall away, so I can live a life characterized by Your beauty.