Offering Our Everything

With Christmas right around the corner, while listening to the music and seeing all the lights, I can’t help but wonder, what am I offering to HIM amidst all the planning I am doing for our earthly gatherings?

How do I offer my whole life as a living sacrifice? How do I offer my time, treasures, gifts, and body for Christ? How do I offer my every hour to him? How do I honor him with my decisions? My priorities? It’s easy to make this go-to list of things that we want to give glory to God for. But what about those things that are hard to accept? Maybe circumstances that we’d rather not experience? Are we willing to surrender it ALL to him and consider how God can even use “this” (you fill in the blank) for his glory?

For me, that is heart failure. I get into massive ruts that are filled with an immense amount of guilt. Guilt over how my heart failure has effected our family. Especially our daughter. Guilt over feeling not as effective as I could be if I didn’t have this. All lies from the Enemy, I know. But the Enemy sure knows how to slyly come in. But I often wonder, how can I use even my heart failure for His glory and offer it as sacrifice to him?

Most recently, my heart failure isn’t quite where the doctor wants it to be, so she is changing up my heart med regimen. Over the past 4-5 years, there have been great advances in heart failure treatment, and though we were hoping “the big 3” would do the job, well, now we are increasing it to “the big 5”, which is the next step. We are INCREDIBLY grateful that a heart transplant is not needed at the moment, but is still on the table. But every appointment that passes that I’m told I don’t need one, is a huge answer to prayer. My body hasn’t responded well to medications (hence why we continue to have the transplant conversation), but in a perfect world, if these new meds worked, I could bypass a transplant altogether. I’m not giving up hope yet! We are so grateful for the technology, devices, and medicine we have in this country!

But where’s the balance? What if it isn’t God’s will that I be healed? That’s where I am continuing to learn what it means to offer my EVERYTHING to Him. Even the things I don’t like. The days that are really hard. The times when I feel like heart failure controls and consumes me. It’s in those moments that I need to choose to allow HIM to work wonders, for His glory, through it.

What is your “thing”?

I want to give (YOU FILL IN THE BLANK W/ A CIRCUMSTANCE) to God and allow HIM to work wonders for HIS glory, through it. 

When we do that, we are unleashing the showers of blessings from God. It’s when we are in his will, embracing all he allows in our lives, by offering our everything, that we will see the power and grace of God more evident than we’ve ever seen before. Are you ready? Are you willing?

I know I have a long ways to go, but I’m going to keep fighting and trying to do so.