Life on the Altar

Romans 12:1 says, “Brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

If I’m honest, I want that kind of life. I want to be a living sacrifice. I want to stay on the altar and yield to the work of holiness when the fire falls, when life presses in, and when the refining hurts. But the truth is… fire burns. The trials and testing that forge us into His image? They hurt. And when the refining process gets uncomfortable, my flesh wants to jump right off that altar.

So how do we stay there? How do we cultivate a lifestyle of worship that isn’t just for Sunday mornings but can withstand a busy Tuesday, or a devastating season of loss?

I believe the answer is this: We stay on the altar through thanksgiving.

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Thanksgiving is More Than a Feeling

Thanksgiving is our response to the acts of God in our lives. It’s not just about having a grateful heart—it’s about expressing that gratitude. Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”

Do you see the movement in that verse? Thanksgiving gets us in the gate. And once we’re in, it ushers us deeper—into His courts, into a discovery of His character and nature. In thanksgiving, we are responding to what He did. Then, in praise, we are acknowledging who He is: not only that He provided for us, but that He is the Provider. Thanksgiving says, “Thank You for what You’ve done.” Praise says, “This is who You are.” Thanksgiving is the first step, but it is not always easy to offer.

Psalm 50:23 puts it this way: “Giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors Me.” And that word sacrifice is important. Because let’s be honest—it’s not easy to lose your home and then give thanks to God for being your Provider. It’s not easy to walk through grief and then thank Him as your Healer. It’s not easy to feel abandoned and still thank Him as your Protector. It’s a choice to cast your emotions and experiences down in order to uphold a greater truth. It’s a sacrifice to command your soul to remember who He is and give thanks no matter what you are feeling. 

That’s why it’s called a sacrifice. Thanksgiving costs something.

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The Worth of What We Offer

When King David was told to build an altar, the man who owned the land offered to give it to him for free. But David said, “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

Our thanksgiving works the same way. When we choose to thank Him through pain, through unanswered questions, through tears—it costs us. But that cost is what proclaims His worth. 

What you’re willing to pay determines worth. Look at the cost God paid to purchase our salvation. Through that act, He proclaimed our worth to Him. In the moments when our world is imploding, that is when our thankful hearts serve as the most pleasing sacrifice—because we are proclaiming His worth to us. What greater declaration can we give than to say: “God, You are worth more than my circumstances, more than my feelings, more than my understanding”?

When we bring Him that kind of offering, our thanksgiving doesn’t just stay thanksgiving. It grows into praise, and that praise leads us into worship. And in worship, something beautiful happens: we become the sacrifice. Our lives, our words, our posture—all surrendered on the altar.

I surrender everything because I see what You’ve done and I know who You are, and You are worth everything.

But we only get to that place through consistent thanksgiving and praise, cultivating a habit of reminding our souls who God is and what He has done. That’s how we come to know Him so well that even the valleys don’t halt our sacrifice of thanksgiving.

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Staying on the Altar

This is why thanksgiving matters so deeply. It isn’t just politeness toward God. It’s the very thing that keeps us on the altar when everything in us wants to climb off.

When I choose to thank Him in all circumstances, I’m not pretending my pain doesn’t exist. I’m proclaiming that He is bigger than my pain. I’m saying, “Lord, You are still worth it. You are still good. You are still faithful.”

Never underestimate the power of thanksgiving. It’s not small. It’s not secondary. It’s the doorway into praise, the pathway to worship, and the anchor that keeps us on the altar no matter what life brings.