A few days ago around the dinner table, I told the kids about my day at Grace to You. I was overwhelmed with the opportunity to tell my kids about the blessing of hearing a sermon at work. “Most people don’t get to listen to a sermon everyday, let alone get paid for it.” These words were encouraging to my soul even as I spoke them to my children.

At work, I have been working on editing a series my faithful pastor has taught on the spiritual privileges we possess as believers. The topic of sacrifice came up and I was drawn to one verse in the OT, the first testament from Gen 22:2 –

He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

Spurgeon had but one question as he contemplated this text of Scripture, “Could we thus obey the Lord?” I have one word that comes to mind as I consider not only this question but this passage of Scripture, nay two, total sacrifice.

Truth be told, I have not thought about this important eternal truth as I ought. You ask, “what truth?” I’m talking about sacrifice. I’m talking about offering to God what is already His. I’m talking about total sacrifice.

Total sacrifice is when you offer everything you are, everything you have, everything you hope to be. That includes your hopes, dreams, and aspirations. I have them and so do you. It is when we say to our Great Father in heaven, “It’s all yours. It’s all yours. It all belongs to you Father. Here I am Lord, I am yours completely.” That my beloved is total sacrifice.

Peter tells us that as living stones, we are to “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). Paul points us to Christ Himself how He loved us and “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:2). God in Christ provided an example for us to follow. Abraham was tested (Heb 11:17) as we are my beloved. Will we offer up to God everything, even that which is dearest to our heart? And I mean, everything, including everything we hope to be.

Most recently I have been tested by our kind and wise Father in heaven and I’m here to tell you that it is the only way to live…total sacrifice. Give it all to Him. It’s all His. Even your desires, hopes, and dreams. They all belong to Him. Stop wrestling with God. You won’t win. He alone is sovereign. He alone is good. “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Ps 34:8). May we all, when we are called, be like Abraham and say to our Lord, “Here I am” (Gen 22:1). As the author of Hebrews testifies of Abraham, “when he was called, he obeyed” (Heb 11:8). God does not speak as He did in times past (see Heb 1:1-2), but may our disposition always be to offer up “spiritual sacrifices” that are acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, “the author and perfecter of faith” (Heb 12:2).