On Being A Living Sacrifice

I read something really good and I thought I would spend the next few posts sharing it with you. So, here is part 1:

"Maximum possible preparation" - that is how you and I ought to be in relation to God. Not that when faced with an opportunity of service for Him, we consider it and think about it then and there. But that we have a heart which has been properly prepared right from the start. We have faced Romans 12:1 and on our knees we have come to the only possible decision. From that moment we. . .are fully prepared, awaiting only the word of command. The tragedy is that so many Christians have dodged the issue at the start. They never said "Yes" and they never said "No". There was just a hazy indecision which meant but one thing, an unprepared heart. So, as always, God was limited because they were unprepared.
Let us bring this verse into the open and face up to it, once and for all. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." We should first of all realize what it doesn't mean. To present my body a living sacrifice doesn't mean giving a little more to the offering in church. Nor does it mean going to church more often. Nor does it mean being a better man or woman. Neither does it mean going to Bible College, or to the mission field, or becoming a pastor, or a Christian worker. It means exactly what it says.
I must first of all consider the mercies of God to me - how good He has been to me, how HE has saved me from a lost eternity, how He has made it possible for me, at the end of this very short earthly life, to be with Him in a place of perfection - a new heaven where there is no hunger, no separation, no pain, no sorrow and no sin. This blessed place will be my home for eternity! How amazing are the mercies of God, when all the time I might have been left in my sin to go to a Christless eternity of separation from God. I should think on these things until, "by the mercies of God" and because of His everlasting goodness, I kneel before Him to say, "thank you."
But my feeling of gratitude is such that words are not enough. Instead of speaking, I present myself to God. I present not only my time, my talents, but my very self, with words like this: "O Heavenly Father, my heart is full of gratitude for all Your goodness to me. I am only a poor wretched sinner, and yet You have made me Your child. You have received me into Your family and into Your everlasting Kingdom. Now, O God, I present myself as a living sacrifice to You, for You to use, as and where You will. My heart is prepared, O God, my hands are off my life. I am ready waiting Your command. For Christ's sake. Amen."
If we are honest about the whole thing, this is the only possible decision to make. As Paul puts it, this is "your reasonable service." (How unreasonable some of us are!) Having made that decision, having presented our bodies in one solemn act of dedication, we may arise and go forward with a prepared heart. We are then in a position of permanent availability, so that God can call on us at any time, and under any circumstances. When the opportunity arises for witness or service, the question of what we should do need never arise. We have made a complete, once-for-all presentation of ourselves, and we expect God to take us at our word.
--- John E. Hunter, Limiting God