I offer myself to You....

The MW Collegiate Dictionary defines the word offer as: to present as an act of worship or devotion : sacrifice b : to utter (as a prayer) in devotion

There is a prayer that I learned in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous called the Third Step Prayer and it goes as follows:

God, I offer myself to Thee-

To build with me

and to do with me as Thou wilt.

Relieve me of the bondage of self,

that I may better do Thy will.

Take away my difficulties,

that victory over them may bear witness

to those I would help of Thy Power,

Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.

May I do Thy will always!

This prayer is used prior to someone making an admission of all the sin that is in their lives; without God it is very difficult to look at those very ugly things that are inside of each one of us. So, having been out of AA for roughly six months ( I did not relapse) and just going back recently I decided that I was going to stay focused on what is from Christ rather than stay focused on what is not. I came to realize that while I was gone I started building resentments against people, was sitting on the pity pot and had become very needy and unfortunately manipulative. Now, I am not in any way shape or form stating that AA is what keeps me sober (it is not just absence of alcohol); it is the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. There is a wonderful thing that takes place in the rooms of AA and that is accountability. People are not afraid to tell you when "your slip is showing"; they will call you on your pride, they will not sit on the pity pot with you; most times it is done in love...sometimes it is not.

I started meditating on this particular prayer today and have not gotten beyond the word offer. To fully understand what this prayer means I need to know what each word means. I had always thought of the word offer to mean to freely give, which it does also mean that. To see the words :To present as an act of worship or devotion! Wow, man that hit me so hard. Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge your brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."

What does it really mean to offer myself to God as a daily sacrifice, to do with me as He wills? Offering myself to Him means that I freely give myself to Him in and act of devotion, in an act of love to use me, to allow me to be His vessel. The sacrifice on my part means that IT IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! Okay, I said it...yes, it is not about me. Period. What kind of sacrifice am I giving my God if in my offering of myself to Him do I want to take some credit; you know pat ME on the back because I said yes to God and that is why you are getting better. Pleas! How sin has completely warped our minds. So for today I am going to move from being self centered to God centered and remember that It's not all about me.

1992 Ford Pick Up

About a year ago my husband and I started praying for a pick up truck, we needed one to haul fire wood and it seems like throughout the spring and summer we always know someone who is moving. About six months into praying for one our Pastor told us that our truck was going to be white with red, white for the purity of Christ and red for His blood. Of course EVERY red and white truck I saw was "the truck"; I made phone calls told people what we needed it for and we never ended up with the truck...I never talked to Jim before I made any of these phone calls and couldn't understand why the Lord was not providing our truck! After all, I was praying, I was out looking, I was making the phone calls and I was attempting to control the blessing! A couple of months ago my husband was on his way home from work and he told me that for the past nine months he had been passing a 1992 Ford pick up that was grey that had had a For Sale sign in the window however, the sign had just been taken out. To my dismay I said to him "Why don't you pray about it"; two days later he stopped and looked at the truck, the price was right, it was still for sale, had minimal things wrong with it and the owner was willing to even come down in price without him asking; the only problem was the truck was, yep you know it. It was grey, not white and red as our Pastor (who has a gift to know what is from him and what is from the Holy Spirit). Jim and I couldn't understand, we thought maybe it was a test of obedience. The following day Jim met with the man and was talking with him and just when he went to tell him that he was going to spend more time praying about it, he put his hand down on "our" truck and noticed a red and white pin stripe. We purchased the truck the following Monday.

The Israelites could not recognize the Savior when He came because they were looking for a King that would come and set up his kingdom just as so many of the Kings in the OT did; they were not able to see the incredible blessing the Lord had wished to bestow upon them. Now, I am not in any what saying that the blessing of our truck is the same as the blessing of our Savior Jesus Christ, the two do not compare. I think we can learn from this by letting go of expecting God to bless us with what we perceive we should have and be open to seeing the real blessing behind it, I don't know if that makes any sense. I know that the blessing was not the truck by any means; the blessing was the answer to yet another prayer.

The Storm

Luke 8:22-25 One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" He asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

I love the simplicity and richness of this passage, I can just picture them all in the boat, maybe even a little relieved to get away from the crowd (Mark’s Gospel mentions that they were near a crowd) and looking forward to just relaxing while they sailed across the lake. I can see Jesus sitting back closing His eyes, breathing deeply taking in the evening air and being completely in the moment. Maybe the disciples are chattering amongst themselves about all of the miracles that they have witnessed up to this point or maybe they too were in need of rest or maybe a little of both. All are relaxed and not expecting to be hit by the squall and instantly as it smashes into them the fear that must have risen up in them! Neither Mark nor Luke’s Gospel mentions that they were asking one another what they should do, it is worded as if they went to Him the moment they realized they were in trouble. The Scripture seems to indicate that they were in desperation when they woke Him up. He woke up, He calmed the storm and saved their lives.

How often in our own lives are we sailing through feeling as if nothing can bother us; happy, joyous and free and BOOM it hits us smack right in the forehead. Are we going to Him first? Or are we relying on worldly ways to calm the storm? It can be something as simple as not having control over a situation, or something as difficult as the news of terminal illness. Are we taking that concern to Him just as His disciples did or do we try to fix it ourselves?

Praying that whatever storm you are facing you allow Him to calm it for you,

His Servant