Hold Nothing Back

     "Offer yourself as a living sacrifice"-have you ever thought about what this means? God says that when we do, it is our reasonable act of worship. The offering of ourselves to Him for His use, for Him to do His work in us, and untimately for His glory as He conforms us to His image, just makes sense. (or is reasonable)
     That seems extreme at first sight, but as we look more closely at this act of worship we can see, by the Holy Spirit, that it is only by this willing surrender, that we truly give all to Him so He can do what He wants to do, so that His will can be done in our lives. Anything else is holding parts of ourself back. Could this be akin to the Laodicean church who is neither hot or cold, the ones God says He wants to spit out of His mouth?
     When we save back parts of ourselves or our lives to manage or control it shows a lack of trust in Him, or either more trust in ourselves, and if we are His, this tug of war will prevent us from going deeper with Him. This means there will be a distance between Him and us which will get in the way of us knowing Him as we could. More than that, it means we will continue to struggle and "kick against the goads," as Paul did. In this context, it is when we try to hang onto our own will, and resist God's will for our lives. Now, that is just "not reasonable"-it doesn't make sense.
     In the book of Hebrews, God talks about entering His rest. We enter that rest by hearing His voice and doing what He says to do, thereby demonstrating that we have truly trusted and believed in Him. When we do that in our lives and with our lives, He is honored and glorified. Our lives become a worship unto Him.