Sacrifices

First off, I want to thank all the men and women of the US Military who have served or are serving and have sacrificed so much, even their lives, for the freedoms we enjoy in this country.  Thank you for your dedication and sacrifice!  

I was reading a lecture today where the author wrote how he had been offered a less paying job but it would be writing for the political party he was so passionate about.  He took the job; however, with getting paid less, he realized he couldn't support his cigarette addiction anymore and gave up smoking.  He wrote, "that sort of sacrifice which the party demanded of me was perfectly normal, and it seemed perfectly normal of me to accept it."

It got me thinking about the sacrifices I've made to be where I am today.  Granted I didn't have to give up a cigarette addiction but I had sacrifices.  I don't live close to my family.  I live in a cultural that I'm not used to.  I travel quite a bit (or used to before marriage).  I have a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and would be getting paid more if I used that degree.  However, I have peace about where God has me today!

The sort of sacrifices which God demands of me is perfectly normal and I can honestly say, it seemed perfectly normal of me to accept it.  God gave us His Son Jesus!  Jesus sacrificed his place in heaven to come to earth, to be born in a manger, to show and share His love to a crowd that would eventually betray Him, and then ultimately, He sacrificed His life so that we could be set free from sins and restored into a right relationship with God.  After that kind of sacrifice, I think it's only normal for me to sacrifice my plans for my life and surrender my life, walking in obedience to the plans God has for me.  I hope you see it as normal as I do.

"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:19-25

"God's grace operates in the same fashion today--not just for salvation but for all of life. He offers the inconceivable to the unworthy and withholds the expected from the deserving.  Faith is not a system of proving our worthiness to Him, but the unadorned reception of what He offers focusing not on the strength of the receiver, but on the character of the giver." Stokes, Grace Under Pressure, p.14