Living Sacrifice

Lately I'm really moved by what it means to be a "living sacrifice". Of what it takes to lie upon an altar and offer myself to my Father. To consider what I am willing to lay down, to think about how often I've missed an opportunity to build an altar and offer sacrifice, to capture the moment and have it burned into my heart so I don't forget it. To be honest, it's really troubled me. My Father has done so much, He's taught me so much, He's loved me so much. He doesn't require it, but isn't my life His anyway to offer to Him?

We all have different stories and yet they're all the same. The end result is the same theme throughout the bible. He is calling us to Himself to redeem us so that we may have fellowship with Him. So that we may go out and make disciples of others. So that we may offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him. He knows us all so well and what we're created to be that all of our journeys are hand tailored just for us. The hard parts with challenges to bring out the amazing gifts that He bestows upon us. The wonderful sweet parts that make our hearts smile in ways unique to us and who He made us to be. At the end of the day, I believe He wants all of our hearts. Once we're able to give Him all of it, then and only then can He begin to bless us with other things, other people because the "other things" will have their proper position.

I need you all to really understand this because it was really huge for me as He revealed it to me. He will take us through hard parts in our journey to rid our hearts of things that don't belong. To trade with us our fears and wounds for love and a new name. He will continue to shape us with a love and determination because we are his beloved. It's a time of testing and refining. A purging really, to cleanse our hearts of all that doesn't belong so that when we view the world through the eyes of our hearts, we can look at things clearly. We will no longer view situations through the color of the cobwebs that have entangled us for so long. Come Follow Me is a call not only to discover who He is but to discover who we are. 

I wonder if life sometimes isn't like a thunderstorm, like the grayness of the clouds. You see friends, I believe when we are living in our original design, it's like the most perfect sunny day with no clouds. It's like walking through beautiful fields of green with jeweled flowers. It's like the mist of marvelous waterfalls that greet you with the gentlest embrace. When we forget to press in to that truth about ourselves, it's like the thunderstorms that come in life. When you look around all you see is gray but if you look hard enough for that small break in the clouds, you find a tiny window like a curtain and behind it you see the most amazing blue skies. You begin to wonder what is real. Are the gray skies really your lot or are they just passing through and the blue skies will return again. Sometimes it's constant wilderness in the journey but we remember a glimpse of the blue sky and we remember the promises for us. Then we know the illusion is really the gray skies that hide the blue. And they too shall pass. Even though sometimes it seems we will never see our blue skies and sunshine again, it is always present in our hearts.