Loving God sacrificially

You can’t talk about loving God without a cost because sacrifice is one of the hallmarks of genuine love. You will sacrifice for whomever you love. God loved man, and He sacrificed His Son for man’s redemption.
 
As people who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, we are expected to reciprocate back the love that God has shown to us. And we do this not by “lip-service love” but by “action-service love.” This is not a love that is driven by what you want to get from God, but one that seeks ways to show (in practical terms) love to God.
 
Sacrifice is to give up something valuable or important for somebody or something. Genuine love for God is not void of sacrifice. It could be sacrificing your time, self, strength, energy, comfort, money, resources or intellect. True sacrifice involves serving and giving.
 
Love in God’s kingdom is action beyond words and feelings. Our words and feelings must be coupled with actionable acts. If you claim to love God, it should cost you something.
 
It is important to know that I am not talking about paying another sacrifice for your salvation. For salvation has been freely given to us. It cost the blood of Jesus Christ. Hence, when I talk of love costing you, I speak of you reciprocating your love back to God.
 
As the scripture says, “We love him because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
 
Come to think of it, “Is your faith in God only costing God?
 
For many believers, this is the case. They can’t point to anything in their lives that they’ve lost or sacrificed because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
 
Someone like the Apostle Paul understood this truth. Hence, he said:
 
*To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness.*
Philippians 3:8 TPT
 
Because of his love for Christ, Apostle Paul had to sacrifice his career of becoming a Pharisee. He sacrificed his Jewish privileges, friends, and many things just to follow Jesus Christ.
 
I believe someone like David understood this truth, hence he said: “…neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing...” (2 Samuel 24:24).
 
True Christianity is not a call to convenience; rather it is a call to inconvenience and denial of oneself for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God on the earth.
 
The first Apostles and our fathers of Faith understood this truth. The missionaries who brought the gospel to Africa also understood this truth. That is why they could jeopardize their lives, sacrificing their jobs, families, and the comfort of the country and come to the jungle of Africa to preach the gospel to us.
 
What was their motivation? They had love for God and love for the people of Africa. Hence, they preached and died on our shore.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ was actually the first to stress the need for sacrificial love as one of the conditions of following Him.
 
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:24-25.
 
Your love for God should be costing you something. That is the nature of agape love; it is called sacrifice.
 
Every minister of the gospel should understand this truth. Ministry is not a call to benefit oneself but a call that is driven by love for God and the gospel, which must be coupled with sacrifice. Indeed, real ministry work is sacrifice.
 
Every genuine minister of the gospel you see is sacrificing beyond what they can tell you because of their love for God and humanity. This is one of the reasons why the scripture admonishes the Church to honour and respect ministers of the gospel; it is simply because of their sacrifice.
 
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine.
1 Timothy 5:17
 
You can’t claim to be loving and serving God without any form of sacrifice, and the first sacrifice that your love for God demands is your complete self: spirit, soul and body.
 
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1