The daily sacrifice
In more than one scripture, we are challenged to “choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”5 You must renew your commitment to follow Jesus each day.6
Every moment of every day provides you with the opportunity to submit to the Lord’s purpose by prioritizing what is best for everyone and everything above all else. During the Israelites’ sojourn in the wilderness, the Lord explained that the tests that they faced even included how much manna they collected for food.705 Under the law of Moses, certain sacrifices were prescribed to be made on a daily and continual basis.706
You shouldn’t expect God to reveal his purpose to you in big things until and unless you consistently seek his purpose in the little things.707 Expecting God to use you in accomplishing his purpose in future tasks is folly unless you are seeking his purpose in the tasks before you in your present daily life.708 In both cases, you should learn that obtaining and effecting what lies beyond your present situation can only be reached by fulfilling the ideal in your present situation.709
Footnotes
- 1. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:42-51) ↩
- 2. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:59-62) ↩
- 3. I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end. (Psalms 119:112) ↩
- 4. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. (Luke 14:27-32) ↩
- 5. See Moses 6:33, Joshua 24:15, and Alma 30:8 ↩
- 6. ...as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. (Romans 6:19) ↩