Living Sacrifice

"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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

~Romans 12:1-2

"...that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice..."

Recently I have decided that it is much more difficult to be a living sacrifice than to die a sacrifice. Obviously I wouldn't actually know, because I have never died. But recently I had begun envying the martyrs who got to die for our Lord. Sometimes this life is so painful, I really don't know if I want to keep on living. However, God has apparently decided that, at least for this moment, that He will be glorified by my continuing to live on this earth. Anyway, I don't know if that's actually what that verse means, but it makes sense to me and it encouraged me.

"...but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

And when I am happy with living, it seems I don't do anything right. I confess, sometimes it seems I'm just too busy to take time to really pray and concentrate on reading my Bible, when I know it's just that I'm not MAKING time. Like right this second, instead of writing this pointless blog post that's really only benefiting me by organizing my own thoughts...
So anyway, that would be the renewing of my mind... praying, reading the Bible, and absorbing what I've read. And according to this verse, that will prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Which I admit I've been kinda doubting lately.

There, my two new favorite Bible verses.

~Lizzie