In Luke 17:33, Jesus said,

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

Our lives really are not worth much unless we are living to fulfill God’s purpose for us. But all too often, Christians do everything they can to preserve the life of comfort and prosperity that they have built for themselves.

In Romans 12:1, Paul tells us that we are to “present our bodies a living sacrifice.” That means that we should be willing to give up whatever we want our lives to be so that God can use us in whatever way He wants.

But how many Christians really are willing to live that way?

On January 8, 1956, while attempting to make contact with the people of the Auca/Waodani Indians in Ecuador, Jim Elliott and four other missionaries were speared to death by the very people they came to minister to. Elliot’s most famous words were written in a journal six years earlier: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

His wife embodied the same attitude—several years later, she left her life in the United States and moved to Ecuador to minister with her young daughter to the same people that had killed her husband.

Jim Elliot’s life was not a waste. God used his death to pave the way for his wife to bring the gospel to a lost tribe of Indians. Through her ministry, almost the entire tribe came to Christ.

You will never know what God can accomplish through your life until you are willing to give it up for Him.