To be ready to be offered is a question of will, not feelings. If we always wait to act until we feel like it, we might never do anything at all. But if we take the initiative and decide to act, exerting our will, if we tell God that we are ready to be offered and that we will accept the consequences, whatever they may be, we will find that no matter what he asks, we are able to do it without complaint.
God puts each of us through crises we must face alone. These are trials intended just for us; no one else can help us with them. But if we prepare for these challenges internally first—if we say, “I will meet this challenge, no matter what”—then we’ll be able to rise to the challenge when it actually comes, taking no thought for the cost to ourselves. If we don’t make this kind of determined, private agreement with God in advance, we’ll end up falling into self-pity when difficulty arises.
“Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27 kjv). The altar represents the purifying fire, the fire that burns away every attachment God has not chosen for us, every connection that isn’t a connection to him. We don’t choose what gets burned away; God does. Our job is to bind the sacrifice, and to make sure we don’t give in to self-pity when the fire starts. After we’ve traveled this way of fire, there is nothing that can oppress us or make us afraid. When crises come, we realize that things cannot touch us as they once did.
Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove himself all you ever dreamed he was.
