How Do I Consecrate Myself to the Lord?
In previous posts, we discussed the crucial significance of consecration for our Christian life. We saw that consecration means putting ourselves in the Lord’s hands and becoming a living sacrifice. We also saw that God’s purchase of us and His love for us are the basis and motivating power for us to give ourselves to Him.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to consecrate ourselves to the Lord and how we can live a life of consecration.
Presenting ourselves to God is our service to God
When we present ourselves to the Lord in consecration, He has the freedom to do whatever He wants in and through us. Actually, consecration is our service to the Lord. The apostle Paul said in Romans 12:1:
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”
God’s great love for us motivates us to present ourselves to Him. In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 3 on compassions in this verse says:
“In Greek the compassions referred to here are plural. God has had many kinds of compassion on us, as shown in His selecting us, calling us, saving us, and bringing us into His life that we may enjoy His riches and become His expression. Through these many compassions as the means and the motivating power, the apostle exhorted us to present our bodies to God for the fulfillment of His purpose.”
When we review the many compassions that God has bestowed on us throughout our lives, both before and after we were saved, we can’t help but offer ourselves in consecration to Him.
Consecrating ourselves willingly to the Lord after we’re saved
First Peter 1:18-19 says:
“Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.”
When Christ died on the cross, He shed His own blood to redeem, or purchase, us. This means we belong to Him. But the Lord Jesus doesn’t force us to hand ourselves over to Him. He wants us to offer ourselves to Him willingly.
No one else can do this for us. We each must personally offer ourselves to the Lord in a definite way after we’re saved.
It’s not necessary for us to have an in-depth knowledge of the Bible, understand everything about being a Christian, or be saved for a long time before we can consecrate ourselves to the Lord. In fact, it’s best not to wait, but to give ourselves to the Lord as soon as we’re saved.
Praying to consecrate ourselves to the Lord
So how do we consecrate ourselves to the Lord? We simply need to spend time alone with Him in intimate prayer.
During this time of personal prayer, we can freely open to the Lord and have a detailed transaction with Him. We can give ourselves, our desires, plans, relationships, possessions, and every aspect of our lives to Him.
The more detailed we are, the more thorough our consecration will be, and the more we’ll experience the joy of belonging to the Lord.
Praying with the Word of God to consecrate ourselves
We may also find it helpful to read some particular verses in the Bible and use them to pray and consecrate ourselves.
For instance, let’s read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body.”
We can use the words in this verse to pray something like this:
“Lord, I am not my own. Lord Jesus, I belong to You because You bought me. Oh Lord, thank You for paying the highest price to purchase me! I am Yours. All I have and all I am are Yours. Lord, I give You my entire life. I give You my time, my energy, my education, my family, and my job.”
We can also read and pray with the words in 2 Corinthians 5:14:
“The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died.”
Christ manifested His great love for us by dying for us on the cross. But what does it mean to be constrained by the love of Christ? Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version provides a vivid explanation of this experience:
“The Greek word means to press on…from all sides, to hold…to one end, to forcibly limit, to confine to one object within certain bounds, to shut up to one line and purpose (as in a narrow, walled road). (The same Greek word is used in Luke 4:38; 12:50; Acts 18:5; Phil. 1:23.) In such a way the apostles were constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him.”
The love of Christ is truly a constraining power! It causes us to love Him in return, to give ourselves to Him, and to live to Him.
With this verse, we can pray:
“Lord Jesus, thank You for Your great love for me! Thank You for dying on the cross. Oh Lord, Your love for me constrains me to give myself to You. I give my life to You. Take all of my days. Take my whole future. Here I am. I place everything in Your hands. I love You, Lord Jesus!”
A life of consecration
On one hand, we all need to consecrate ourselves to God once and for all. But after our initial consecration, we should live a life of consecration all our days.
We can do this by practicing to give ourselves to the Lord every day. Each morning when we wake up, we can tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, thank You for this new day. I offer myself to You today.”
We can also give ourselves to the Lord afresh at specific times in our lives. For instance, if we’re students, we can give ourselves to the Lord at the beginning of each new school term. Or if we get a new job or a promotion, we can pray, “Lord, I give this new job to You. It’s not mine, but Yours, because I belong to You.”
When we get married, we can offer a consecration to the Lord: “Lord, my life is Yours. I belong to You. I give my marriage to You.” At any such milestone, whether big or small, we can take the opportunity to present ourselves and the new phase of our lives to Him.
We can also use certain times like the beginning of a new year to offer ourselves to Him again. By practicing to consecrate ourselves daily and at specific times and phases in our life, we keep our consecration to the Lord fresh.
To learn more about consecration, you can read these posts: What Is Consecration?, The Basis and Motivation for Consecrating Ourselves to God, and A Story of Consecration: Loving Jesus with Our Best. And if you live in Europe, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
