Bookend Scripture
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 nkjv
Sacrifice
Yes I find it hard sometimes to sacrifice...
That isn't to say I have always been like that. It is in part because I haven't always understood what the big picture of it is with God.
Doing 'faith' actions for God will only get you so far if you don't have some understanding of why you are even doing them in the first place.
Sacrifice is like that I think. If you don't understand why you are doing it, eventually you will find a way to not do it anymore, and rationalise away an excuse to avoid it.
But central to our faith is this 'Jesus example'...where He came to earth to serve and not be served. To give more than He was ever given. To sacrifice His life as a ransom for many!
And He wraps that all up with "come follow me and be my disciple..."
Check out the dictionary and you get a pretty black and white picture of what it can mean...
: the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone
: an act of killing a person or animal in a religious ceremony as an offering to please a god
: a person or animal that is killed in a sacrifice
source : merriam-webster online dictionary
I believe several things about biblical sacrifice:
1. It sometimes hurts
Giving up something that we value or has even cost us a lot can hurt.
When something has truly been sacrificed there is always some pain. I would hesitate to say that if there is no pain then it was not really a big sacrifice.
The lady who gave all she had in a offering that Jesus was watching with his disciples, understood this concept more than all who gave out of their overflow, their leftovers. Luke 21:1-4
She experienced pain in the sense she had nothing left.
So why did she do it?
2. It always costs us something
If you give away what was never yours - then you can't really define it as sacrifice.
King David showed he understood this principle when he went to make an offering to God one day to prevent further disaster for his people. The owner of some land he needed wanted to give it to him. On face value it was a fantastic and generous offer, but David knew it was not really legit without cost to him personally. 2 Samuel 24:24
3. It is sometimes very messy
You don't have to be a theologian to work out that the way sacrifice happened in the old testament was probably pretty messy! Aren't you glad God doesn't ask this generation to sacrifice sheep, cattle, goats, birds etc to get us right with Him? Jesus sorted that all out for us by becoming the sacrificial lamb, once for all! He was messed with, messed up, and His body destroyed to create the ultimate sacrifice for you and for me.
The cross was a very messy sacrifice!
Where I think it can get messy for us is with our thinking...
Why should I sacrifice my time, my resources, my love?
If we have wrong expectations based on wrong thinking and possibly wrong teaching, it messes with us.
That is why Paul summed it up with what he wrote to the Roman Church around 57AD...
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform 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. Romans 12:1-2 niv
Please don't race to finish what you are reading?
Take a moment and think about what this being a 'living sacrifice' could mean for you right now...
Sacrifice is ultimately something very personal. It is not meant to be simply about task and function.
It is ultimately a desire to be like Jesus yourself.
If God asks you to sacrifice in some way at this time, please remember the promise Paul mentions in verse 2 - and remember our bookend scripture.
Bookend Scripture
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 nkjv
Something to think about...
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Note on this little 'simple thought' series
I have been thinking recently about sharing honestly, transparently about some of the hardest aspects of our faith, of following Jesus. Not wanting to do this in a negative way at all, but in a way that helps us all I hope on our journey.
I am a fan of what scripture encourages us to do - to cheer each other on!
So with that in mind I am going to bookend each 'simple thought' of this series with one scripture.
A scripture that reminds us that when we are weak, God has room to do something. That when you are struggling with some aspect of following Jesus, God is ready to jump in and do His thing!
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