I have been reading through Leviticus this month. The first part is full of all the different kinds of offerings. There is so much detail into what animal to use, how to cut it, where to place your hands, what parts to use, how to burn it, what to do with the blood…and so on. Complicated stuff! After the gross stuff was done, the savory aroma from these burnt offerings were pleasing to God!
I am so thankful that I do not have to sacrifice animals to God because Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for all my sins. HALLELUJAH!! But here is an interesting twist…now I am the sacrifice…not a dead one but a LIVING one!
“Therefore, 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 true worship.� Romans 12:1-2
Because of God’s mercy…because God gave us the ultimate sacrifice we can give our bodies (the ones He gave us in the first place) to God.
Okay, so how do we do this? Well, I could get into it and it can be super complicated stuff like the offerings in Leviticus. But I won’t. Ultimately to be a living sacrifice you have to die to self and live for God. Again, what does it mean to die to self? Thanks for asking! Well, it starts off small; like you feel the nudge to give your last bite of chocolate to your friend next to you. You have to die to your selfish desire to eat it up and instead give it with a cheerful heart to your friend. But then it grows! So much so that when you get that nudge to leave your family, friends, and comforts to do what God has called you to do, you get pumped that He has given you this opportunity.
Now dying to self is extremely painful at times, because our flesh can put up a tremendously hard fight. Everything within us screams and we have to ask God to help us fight our selfish self. But the more we do it the more it becomes our nature…well actually it is never our nature, I should say God’s nature. Later in the verse it says, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing, and perfect will.â€� Again we see that pleasing… Like the aroma from the burnt offering is pleasing to God so our life can be too…. and we will be in His good and perfect will! What more could we ask for? The Creator of our bodies, the one who made us and knows us perfectly, will give us a perfect plan because He knows us the best and what would be best for us! So yes, being a sacrifice hurts…but it only hurts because He is cutting away the fat and ugly grime that shouldn’t be there….. “trimmed downâ€� to true beauty!
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.� 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
It is a good day to die! Lord, help me no longer live for myself.
