“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1 (NIV)
A commentator who was alluding to the scripture passage above once remarked that the problem with living sacrifices is their proven tendency to slip off the altar. I am sure that you will agree with me from your own experience that that statement is not wide off the mark, because our chief problem as saints living in a sinful world is the struggle to maintain our consecration. Like star struck lovers, we often proclaim our undying love one moment only to break our promise the next. It is like the story of a love-struck boy who in his desire to express his affection for this lady blurted out ‘I will die for you!’ The girl wisely responded by saying ‘I don’t need you to die for me. That is way too cheap. What I want you to do is to live for me everyday.’ Herein lies the challenge for most of us as we seemed to have been programmed to declare our undying love for God every Sunday. While God enjoys our talking the talk every Sunday as we are caught in the passion of our worship, He would rather that we also walk the walk and follow through on our promise by living our lives for Him daily. In other words, God is saying to us that talk is cheap. The real substance that He is really after is our walk with Him. He doesn’t just want us to climb onto the altar in the heightened atmosphere or mountain top experiences of our worship services, but to remain there throughout the reality inducing hardness of the working week as we live our lives in absolute surrender and service to Him. The bible affirms that this kind of lifestyle is reasonable and acceptable spiritual act of worship.
Authentic Christianity involves having the same face irrespective of where we are or who we are with. It means living our lives in God’s service with integrity with the chief purpose of glorifying Him. Plastic Christianity is the opposite of the above and this can impair testimony in the eyes of the world before which we are called to serve as witnesses as well as cut us off from the God we claim to serve, since He is a holy God. Our heavenly Father, who is not two faced, has called and thus expects us to be holy like Him. We will only be able to maintain that holiness by staying on the altar of consecration to a holy God. This involves dying daily to self and the world, which characteristically always seek to pull us down into the grottiness of sin.
So, what other advantage will accrue to those who maintain their consecration? They will receive the ultimate commendation. This will take the shape of God sending His holy fire to consummate their offering and set their lives afire for His glory. So, what is your current spiritual status? Have you slipped off the altar of consecration once again or are you struggling to maintain your consecration? The key to maintaining your consecration lies in you making a quality decision to live for God in every aspect of your life. Once you have made that decision, God will release to you the grace to live an overcoming spiritual life and cap that consecration by anointing you with His holy fire – the Spirit of truth. You can be sure that God will make staying on the altar worth your while.
Prayer:
Lord, your word assures me that great peace have they that love your law. Nothing shall move them. Cause the love for your altar and presence to consume me today so that your fire can indeed consume me and give glory to your name. Amen.