Quotes about Sacrifice

You are imitating Jesus Christ and taking on the nature of a servant, which is your calling as a Christian.

If we think that serving God always leads to greater prosperity, we're selectively reading our Bibles.

The best way for me to live this out is to keep asking myself, 'What is my love for my wife costing me?' If the answer is 'nothing,' then I'm not loving my wife as Christ loved the church.

Infatuation fills your eyes with what you're getting, but let the Bible fill your mind with what you're committing to give.

the picture of marriage as God intended it to be — two equals, albeit different, completely and wholly serving the other person as though they are greater than themselves, thus creating not a male-female power struggle over who is more worthy, but a harmony that reflects the character of God in the Trinity and the ministry of reconciliation in the world.

Marriage creates a situation in which our desire to be served and coddled can be replaced with a nobler desire to serve others — even to sacrifice for others.

I believe God designed marriage, in part, to "pinch our feet." Both men and women need to have their pride assaulted. All of us, men and women alike, if we are to become like Christ, must, by definition, learn to become servants. And marriage gives us the opportunity to do just that.

Occasional acts of dramatic service like this can go such a long way — not only in cementing intimacy as a couple, but in reminding the spouse who does the giving that to know Christ is to know service; to become like Christ is to become like a servant; to follow Christ is to follow the way of service.

Even so, whenever the biblical model is superseded and a woman or man becomes a mom or dad first instead of a wife or husband first, the marriage suffers—very often irretrievably.

Christians who demonstrate compassion because they are passionately in love with God will thus speak prophetically to a selfish culture and, sometimes, a selfish church. Selfishness distorts true sacrifice, and sacrifice is at the heart of true care.

Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial... "Christianity does not therefore depreciate marriage; it sanctifies it."

Each day we must die to our own desires and rise as a servant. Each day we are called to identify with the suffering Christ on the cross and then be empowered by the resurrected Christ. We die to our expectations, our demands, and our fears. We rise to compromise, service, and courage. In the same way Jesus gave his body for us, We are to lay down our energy, our bodies, and our lives for other.