Living Sacrifice

I touched on sacrifice yesterday. In a sense we are to die to self, take up our cross, sacrifice. But the Bible says we are to be a living sacrifice. We climb up on the altar, maybe every day. You know why? Because we are still alive. A live sacrifice can crawl right off the altar.
How do I do this? Do I do this? Am I sacrificing myself? I am learning this year to be where I am serving God. As my work load increased and I spent less time writing, too weary to wake early to write or stay up late this winter as my body rebelled against my wishes, I felt I must put my best into nursing. Right now, my sacrifice is my time for writing.
OK, but what about me? The writing, the dream is on that altar, but did I put myself there? How was my attitude? Did I serve my patients, my superiors without complaining? Hide behind that bush, stringing those fig leaves, No, I did not have the attitude required of totally turning it all over to God.
This is a process, like training for the long race. Every day, I prayed to give myself up to God. I needed to lift up my burden of being in control, my burden of myself and take Jesus' yoke and burden. Jesus understands our weak bodies. Even in the Psalms it speaks of how God remembers we are weak, dust. He loves us, me. Maybe the most in my weakest state, because that is when He can work best through me.
As I pray for revival, I know it must begin in me. I don't have the tools to strap myself on the altar, I must stay there of my own free will. The Lord will provide what I need. In fact, He has in His own sacrifice on the cross. He is my righteousness, at which God looks.
Pentecost is celebrated tomorrow. Also Memorial Day will be honored here in the United States. Let Pentecost not be a memorial day, but a living day, that lives in your living sacrifice. Be filled with the Pentecost spirit, the Holy Spirit, that gives life and power to the living sacrifice.