The bible talks a lot about sacrifice. Sacrifices were part of the culture, going back to the days of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. As much as we hear about the ritual, I still think it is difficult for many of us to relate to. We don’t make animal sacrifices anymore, and for that, I am most grateful. I love a good steak, especially paired with seafood in copious amounts of butter. But I prefer to be ignorant of the processes required to put that steak on my table.

I’ve been reading a book about contentment and breaking free of the comparison trap that we all seem to fall into. One of the verses mentioned in the chapter I read this week was, Hebrews 13:15, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” I know that I have read that verse before, but I had never noticed the word “sacrifice”. Sacrifice is defined in part as “surrendering a possession as an offering to God”. If we are to “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise”, what does that mean? And what am I surrendering?

Surrendering—there’s another difficult word. I don’t surrender easily! Everything I have, I have fought and worked for. Yet, God is calling me to surrender to Him—something I am willing to do—but not something I am capable of doing on my own. Surrender means to cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and to submit to their authority. As a child of God, I am no longer His enemy, as I have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, I stand before the King as a child, a member of His family, and someday I will receive from Him my inheritance.

As a child, I am to surrender to His will and offer up myself, (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) as an offering to His will and His purpose. And I am to do all this with an attitude of praise! Heather Creekmore, the author of “The Burden of Better”, wrote “Joy percolates in my soul when my priority is to please God.” That image really struck me! If you are of the “older” generation, you will remember the percolator coffee makers. I immediately saw one of these in my mind, when I read that quote, and I envisioned my joy, bursting out, just as the coffee does! What a mental image! Yet, the coffee can’t percolate, unless it is plugged into its power source and the heat has built up enough, for the coffee to be forced up and out of the tube. So is our joy in the Lord! We must be plugged into Him, plugged into His power, and heated up—not lukewarm or cold—for our joy to spill out. And without first offering ourselves to His power, and then surrendering to that power, we will never move from plain cold water, into a strong, rich brew that wakes people up.

The biblical definition of joy is a feeling of happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us. Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk was certainly plugged into the power of the Lord, because despite his circumstances, he vowed to continue to praise the Lord.

As I said before, surrender is a difficult word. Surrendering myself is a daily battle, yet I know that through His power, I will continue to learn and to grow. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Percolating my joy! Yes! I want to be a percolator for Christ!