When my son Steve left home in the summer of 2006 to join the navy, he knew the importance of his decision. He understood that once he walked onto that naval base for basic training, he was giving up everything a teenager lives for. He was leaving behind his freedom, his guitars, his music and his girlfriend. He surrendered the right to make his own choices and to do what he wanted to do. In effect he said, “I am making myself a living sacrifice. I am no longer doing things for me, I am doing them for the service of my country.”

The sacrifice Steve and thousands of others make when they enter the military service reminds me of what the apostle Paul taught in Romans 12:1. In that passage he urged us “to offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is [our] spiritual act of worship.” This means we are to give up our selfish ways and surrender ourselves completely to God. We are to seek to be “holy” in all we do—to have a godly character (1 Peter 1:16), which is acceptable to God.

It wasn’t easy for Steve, who valued self-determination, to give it all up for the Navy. But he did it. And it isn’t easy for us to completely surrender our will to God. How can you and I be a living sacrifice for God today?

Author

Dave Branon

Topics

Our Daily Bread