Our Sacrifice of Worship

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"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him." Romans 12:1 (NLT)


"Worship and praise." We hear those words a lot in the community of believers- and we should. They are vital to our spiritual health and as we enter into thanksgiving and song unto the Lord. The word praise includes singing, extending hands, bowing- something that involves our outer physical bodies. but the word "worship" is different. It comes from our deep desire and devotion to please God, to live for Him. It comes from deep inside our commitment to love, obey, live and follow God, and it should be active at all times.

I was recently studying in the book of Genesis and found out something I had never seen before. The first time the word "worship" is used in the Bible is in Genesis 22:5. This chapter describes the event of Abraham being told by God to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Abraham showed his obedience and faith in God and just in time, God called out and told him to stop. God had provided a ram close by. It was a beautiful picture of how God, in time, was going to offer up His son Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice. In this instance, a "sacrifice" was involved. True worship always involves a sacrifice.

When you break down the meaning of the word "worship" (shachah), it gives us the thought of experiencing God's presence at His feet; an intimate relationship with Him as His bride.  It isn't in the things that we do so much as in what we in our inner spirit. Worship involves our total life-body, soul and spirit. Though we can't go around 24 hours a day bowing down to Him literally, we can have that attitude, that posture, that mindset- that we are offering ourselves up to God as a living sacrifice.

He no longer requires animal sacrifices as they did in the Old Testament. Christ fulfilled all that as a supreme sacrifice for our sins when He was crucified. But today, we are to be living sacrifices. We have to sacrifice our will for His, our plans for His, our ways for His. We can't just make our own plans and ask God to honor them. We must give our lives totally to Him as living sacrifices and commit to obeying Him, living for and loving Him- whatever the cost.

The story of woman with the alabaster box (Mark 14:3-9) is a beautiful example of true worship- which remember- always involves sacrifice. She was a sinful woman but decided to go to Jesus. She had to push her way through a crowd of people, that, when seeing her, snickered and sneered, that such a woman would even dare to try to see Jesus. But she did. She endured the ridicule that was coming from the crowd and she focused on her goal- Jesus Christ. Pushing past that crowd and coming to Jesus, she knelt down and broke open a very expensive container of perfume- spikenard which came from India. It was extremely expensive. She began to anoint Jesus. This could have possibly been her dowry, but she preferred to spend it on Jesus. Possibly she gave up any hope of a good marriage, since back in those days, brides were expected to bring some kind of dowry to the marriage. She had no idea what Jesus' reaction was going to be- but she took the chance- sacrificed what she had. In this act of devotion and worship- Christ was revealed to her in the form of forgiveness, love, compassion. Sacrifice will also bring more revelation of Jesus Christ to those who sacrifice for Him.

Our sacrifice of worship. What is God speaking to you about this? Is there something that He is asking you to give up for Him? True worship involves sacrifice. He never asks us to sacrifice something without giving back to us something even greater. Worship also involves revelation. Do you want more of Christ to be revealed to you? Do you want a deeper relationship with the Lord? Then seek the Lord, be sensitive to His voice. He has even a greater desire to reveal Himself to us, than what we want from Him. It could be our time. It could be our interests. It could be anything, but mostly He wants us to sacrifice our wills to Him- to have a posture towards God that says I commit to follow You, obey You and live for You.


A Sacrifice of Worship. What is God saying to you?

~Donna

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