Paul, at the end of Romans 11, asks, ‘Who has given a gift to (the Lord) that he might be repaid?’ then adds, ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ Then Paul appeals (Romans 12:1) that we give ourselves to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, an offering of spiritual worship. We give ourselves up to God, by His Grace, for His Glory. This first of three brief posts on the theme of abandonment to God comes from Oswald Chambers…
Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
Mark 10:28 ESV
“Our Lord replies, (to Peter) in effect, that abandonment is for Himself, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it – ‘I am going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.’…
Abandonment is not for anything at all.
We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying – ‘No, Lord, I don’t want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost; I want to be put in Thy showroom and be able to say – ‘This is what God has done for me.’
If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God – these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself….”
From Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest
sermons and soda water 