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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Battling in Prayer With Jesus

“Tarry with Me.”

The Lord gave me that phrase during my prayer time two years ago, and I had to go look it up because I wasn’t used to Him talking to me in KJV (lol).

I found it in Matthew, when Jesus was praying in the garden before the crucifixion, and He asked the disciples: Tarry with me.

Stay with me. Be in companionship with me and battle with me in prayer.

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Three Steps to Kingdom Greatness

It was an honor and privilege to share a brief devotion with some of my heroes in the field while serving with Samaritan’s Purse this week. Many of these volunteers have been on the ground for several weeks, pouring themselves out in order to make the love of Christ known to those who are hurting. I wish I could share all of their stories and testimonies with you, but for now, I wanted to share the words the Lord put on my own heart below.

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Your Obedience, For Their Breakthrough

For the past few years, every time my husband has fasted with the Lord for an extended period, I have ended up having dreams and visions. In fact, it’s happened so frequently that it’s turned into a running joke between us about how being one flesh means that I get to reap the benefits of his obedience.

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Fixing My Thoughts on Him

I was out for a walk recently, listening to a sermon, when the following passage caught my attention:

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” —Psalms 139:16-18

I was struck by the phrase, “How precious are your thoughts about me.” For some reason, I had never given much weight to the fact that God actually thinks about me. And not only that He thinks about me, but that His good thoughts for me outnumber the grains of sand.

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