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Worship: Offering Yourself to God
by Rick Warren
So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you:
Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and
pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Romans
12:1-2 (TEV)
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Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about.
This act of personal surrender is called many things: consecration, making
Jesus Lord, taking up your cross, dying to self, yielding to the Spirit.
What matters is that you *do it*, not what you *call it*. God wants your
life, all of it – 95 percent is not enough.
Our total surrender to God is blocked by several things, including:
· Our ignorance of God – not knowing what he's really like;
· Our sinful nature – the desire to be God ourselves; and
· Our misunderstanding of surrender and the trust that it requires.
*Can We Trust God?* Trust is an essential ingredient to surrender. We won't
surrender to God unless we trust him, but we can't trust him until we know
him better. Fear keeps us from surrendering, but love casts out all fear.
The more you realize how much God loves you, the easier surrender becomes.
*How do I know God loves me?* He gives us many evidences:
· God says he loves you (Psalm 145:9);
· You're never out of his sight (Psalm 139:3);
· He cares about every detail of your life (Matthew 10:30);
· He gave you the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure (1 Timothy 6:17b);
· He has good plans for your life (Jeremiah 29:11);
· He forgives you (Psalm 86:5);
· He's patient with you (Psalm 145:8);
· He sacrificed his Son for you (Romans 5:8).
God loves you infinitely more than you can imagine.
**
"Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your
spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1 HCSB).
If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with his arms
outstretched on the cross saying, "I love you this much!I'd rather die than
live without you."
God is not a cruel slave driver or a bully who uses brute force to coerce us
into submission. He doesn't try to break our will, but woos us to himself,
so that we might offer it freely to him. God is a lover and a liberator, and
surrendering brings freedom, not bondage.
When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that he is not
a tyrant but a savior; not a boss, but a brother; not a dictator, but a
friend.
(c) 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.
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'Unless you change what you do, you will always have what you've got.'
- Jim Rohn
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