“Sacrifice” comes from two Latin words meaning “sacred” and “to make”. In religious terms a sacrifice is anything dedicated to God. In the Jews religion and today in Christianity, sacrifices are ways of returning to God the life God gave to man. Whether a lamb on an alter or money placed in a tray, a sacrifice is a man’s acknowledgment that his life is not his own. We have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:20). Man’s body and breath, mind and spirit; material belongings, land, all that he has are loaned to him for a while. All religious sacrifices are but outward symbols of this essential truth that the universe and all things in it are God’s and are to be used for God’s purpose.
For a Christian, this is God’s world; people are God’s people, every event is God’s affair. Attention is therefore shifted from self to God and other people. This change makes joyous, sacrificial living possible.
Sacrifice can be the matter of giving up some sinful pleasure, some luxury, some convenience; a genuine cost to self. It may be time sacrificed to pray, to study the Bible, the extra that seems to be beyond our duty……… THE SACRIFICE. The amount that is over and beyond makes the big difference. It is not until we have forsaken all for Christ that we ever learn the proper use of our homes, our businesses, our possessions, etc. Only then do we really become profitable in serving the Lord.