Sacrifice

About a month ago, I wrote the following in my journal (like an actual hand-written journal...not this blog thing).

Sacrifice....this idea is rolling through my head. It came about tonight when I really wanted to keep reading Redeeming Love...like really wanted to read it, but I chose to read my Bible instead. This is what I would call sacrifice. Giving up something you want to do for something you should (always want to) do.

I had this same thought a few months back after a leadership conference I went to. In fact, I wrote something down about it in this journal. "The things I choose to do may not be wrong, but they are things I choose over You...I satisfy my flesh."

I do feel like I tend to always satisfy my flesh. What do I really know of sacrifice? I am not sure that I do.

Listed below are some of the reasons I believe our lives should include sacrifice...

- Giving up sin in our life. This is an easy one to see although not always an easy sacrifice. God calls us to give up the sins in our lives in order for us to attempt to be holy.

- To learn to be selfless. The things we want can sometimes be very selfish. By learning to sacrifice, we start to think of what we want less often.

- To show that we love God more than the things we sacrifice. Sometimes the things we sacrifice are not bad things but I believe God wants us to always be willing to give those things up for Him.

These are probably not the only 3 reasons for sacrifice, but these are the ones that my brain got stuck on.

Since I wrote this in my journal a few weeks ago, I have been thinking about this idea a lot. My life is pretty comfortable. For the most part, I do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it. I think this started my thought process about sacrifice. I had also been reading Leviticus so I'm sure that had something to do with me thinking about sacrifice since the book talks about all the different sacrifices the Israelites would have to do.

The night I wrote in my journal I had a 15 minute conversation with myself about sacrifice on the way to my Thursday night Bible study...I was actually talking out loud...I think I was pretending that I was leading a Bible study...haha.

That night I also made the decision to try to give up one thing a day that I really wanted to do or say in order to try to learn more about sacrifice.

I'm starting to see sacrifice written all over the pages of scripture. It's everywhere. Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son. Jesus telling the rich young ruler to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow him. David saying in the Psalms after Nathan calls him out for sleeping with Bathsheba, "the sacrifice You want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise." And the biggest display of sacrifice seen throughout the Bible would be Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.

I'm convinced that every year (I would say everyday but this may not be true) I will learn more and more about sacrifice. I will learn about it way more when I get married one day. And WAY more about it when I have children. Then I won't even have to consciously sacrifice...I will have to do it even if I don't really want to because I will have to put people before me. Obviously it will still be a choice in some ways, but I know then I will have to choose to do it.

I'm doing ok with my task of sacrifice so far. There have been days where I have succeeded...days where I haven't....and days where I didn't even think about it. Some days it's me giving up spending time with friends to spend time with family...sometimes it's me going to eat somewhere that I hate eating at...some days it is actually me forcing myself to make the effort to pray (which sounds horrible, I know.).

I know that some days it will be easy and some days it will be hard. I hope to continue to keep this at the forefront of my mind though.

I hope to have a more sacrificial heart.

I hope to love and care for others before myself.

I hope to get rid of the sin that so easily entangles me.

I hope to give God all of me and not just parts of me.