Presently, I am leading a men's discipleship group through a study that I have entitled "Finishing Well." How easy it is to grow weary, lose heart, and give up. The life of Demas, one of the Apostle Paul's coworkers, stands as a stark reminder of how easy it is to not finish well in life and ministry due to loving and treasuring other things more than Jesus (2 Timothy 4:10).

Jerry Bridges has written an article on what he considers to be four essentials to finish well our race. These four essentials are: Learning how to cultivate daily, receptive, absorbing communion with the living God, learning how to daily appropriate the gospel, learning how to daily commit yourself to the Lord as a living sacrifice, and resting in a firm, resolute brief in the sovereignty and love of God.

The Biblical basis for the third essential for finishing well is found in Romans 12:1. Here the Apostle Paul  urges the church at Rome: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

The word “present” means to give over to or to put at another’s disposal. To be “at God’s disposal” at least means the following two things:
a) actively, to be willing to obey God in anything he says in any area of life (The reason that Paul was commissioned as a minister of the gospel was "to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations" (Romans 1:5) and
b) passively, to be willing to thank God for anything he sends in any area of life. Remember the pastoral counsel of John Newton: "Everything is necessary that God sends. Nothing is needful that He withholds."

John Chrysostom offers us practical help in how our bodies are to become a living sacrifice. "Let the eye look upon no evil thing, and it hath become a sacrifice; let thy tongue speak nothing filthy, and it hath become an offering; let thine hand do no lawless deed, and it hath become a whole burnt offering. Or rather this is not enough, but we must have good works also: let the hand do alms, the mouth bless them that cross one, and the hearing find leisure evermore for lections (readings) of Scripture.”

But why are we to put everything that we are and have at God's disposal? John Calvin wisely summarizes our motivation:  “Men will never worship God with a sincere heart, or be roused to fear and obey Him with sufficient zeal, until they properly understand how much they are indebted to His mercy.” Do you see yourself as an object of God’s mercy? It took the Apostle Paul the first eleven chapters in Romans to set forth the Lord's mercies in the salvation of His people.

Want you take a few minutes and pray through the following hymn of Frances Ridley Havergal and put yourself more fully at God's disposal today in light of His incredible mercies?

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.