Therefore, I urge you, brother, 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 is - His good pleasing and perfect will.
Offering ourselves to God is what true worship is all about. This act of personal surrender is called many things; consecration, taking up your cross, dying to self, yielding to the Spirit. In my opinion what really matters is that we do it, not what we call it. God wants all of our life - not some of it for example 99% of it.
My personal experience of who God really is over the last few months has thought me that me, our total surrender to God is generally blocked by several things for example;
- Our ignorance of God - not knowing who He really is;
- Our sinful nature - the desire to be God ourselves; and
- Our misunderstanding of surrender and the trust that it requires.
- Can we trust God? Trust is an essential ingredient to surrender.
In the past, I couldn't wholeheartedly surrender to God due to my lack of trust in Him which was due to my own ignorance and a lack of knowledge of who God is. The truth is, we can't trust God until we know Him intimately and personally. The Bible says in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." This is implies that our fear plays a very major role in our surrendering, however perfect love casteth out fear.
I want to encourage you to know that, the more you realise how much God loves you, the easier surrendering becomes. God loves us infinitely more than you and l can imagine. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1, "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."
Reflections:
If you want to know how much you mean to God, look at Christ with His arms outstretched on the cross saying, "I love you this much! I'd rather die than live without you."
Power Verse:
Read and meditate on Psalm 139:3-18
2011 By Enyonam Gbekle. All rights reserved.
As the old hymn says,
ReplyDelete"Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all".