By Chris Griffiths, Jubilee Church Wirral

Now I know that this occasion has been and gone for another year in the world.

But for us as believers we can celebrate our Heavenly Father every day, with a prayer of thanks for His work in our lives, and His faithful love for us.

As I was down to lead church on Father’s Day, I asked God what message He had for us, thinking about the differences between the way mothers and fathers express their love, and the phrase came to me of ‘sacrificial love’.

So whether you’ve made sacrifices for your own children, or whether you’ve experienced sacrifices made on your behalf as a child, or whether you’ve given up something for something dear to you, we can all say that sacrifice and love are linked together.

Jesus’s whole life was a living sacrifice for us, he gave up his wishes as a man to ensure that God’s plan was fulfilled every day of His life on Earth.

Can we say the same? What are we holding onto and why? What benefit do we get from putting our desires in front of God’s desire for us to be the very best version of ourselves, for His glory?

We can be encouraged that Jesus came so that we could have life to the full, by trusting in God’s plan for every part of our lives (Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”)

There is a huge difference though between the world and the Kingdom in the outcome of sacrifice. In the world personal sacrifice would mean the person is worse off than before, whereas believers sacrifices mean they not only gain from God’s blessings but also from living in God’s plan for their lives. And as God knows everything, is in every situation, in every time, how much can we be blessed by His working in our lives!

So there we have it.

Let’s be encouraged that whatever sacrifice we make in our lives for God, He will bless us back infinitely more with a life of Christian purpose, heavenly power and enduring love.

Chris Griffiths, Jubilee Church Wirral