I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. —Romans 12:1
Dr. Helen Roseveare, one of my “heroes of the faith,” spent twenty years serving as a single missionary in what was then the Belgian Congo. I often reread her book Living Sacrifice when I start feeling sorry for myself, claiming rights, or sensing some weight that God has placed upon me.
Dr. Roseveare, who never married, knew what it was to have unfulfilled longings. But she also learned how to surrender those longings to the Lord, trusting His wise, loving heart to grant her that which is truly best:
To be a living sacrifice will involve all my love. My emotions and desires are to be actively dedicated to the Lord, with one burning desire, to worship Him more worthily and to serve Him more wholeheartedly. I relinquish the right to choose whom I will love and how, giving the Lord the right to choose for me. . . . I relinquish all rights to Him who desires my supreme good. He knows best. 1
1 Helen Roseveare, Living Sacrifice (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), 116.
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Singled Out for Him: Embracing the gift, the blessings, and the challenges of singleness ©2023 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
Scripture taken from The CSB
Make it Personal
Do you believe God truly desires your supreme good? Pray that you will trust Him to satisfy the deepest needs and longings of your heart.