Florence Nightingale, at thirty, wrote in her diary, “I am thirty years of age, the age at which Christ began His mission. Now, Lord, let me think only of thy will.”

Years later, near the end of her heroic life, she was asked the secret of her life. She replied. “Well, I can only give one explanation. That is, I have kept nothing back from God.”

The famous nurse had presented her life as a living sacrifice to her Saviour. She did not think it was too much to surrender all. Knowing that Christ had laid aside His heavenly riches to come to earth to save sinners, she willingly gave her all to Him.

Unless you surrender your life to Christ, you will be swept along with others in the mad race of getting. Your whole life will then revolve around what you can accumulate. Regardless of your occupation, your main purpose in life will be to gather as much money and property as possible. You will become a junk collector.

A man who had just discovered he had a terminal sickness confided his feelings to me. “It’s been deceiving,” he said. He had spent his whole life getting and now he had little time left to enjoy or use his wealth. There had been no time to worship God for he had felt he must work long hours every day to be successful. Now he had but a few hours left and there was no way to call back the years. The real purpose of life had eluded him. What a contrast to Florence Nightingale’s surrender of her life to the will of God! In giving, she gained. The world was enriched by her sacrifice.