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)

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

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).