The Law of Sacrifice or Leftovers?

Many times we hear about how we need to sacrifice a bit for the Lord. Just today in testimony meeting a brother was talking about how we need to sacrifice some things that we prefer, like alcohol or cigarettes, in order to obtain the full blessings from the Lord. We hear about missionaries who sacrifice 18 month or 2 years of their life to serve the Lord. Members sacrifice their time and talents all the time in order to serve others. In fact one of our hymns, Praise to the Man, has a verse that starts out with "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven . . .".

But when you get back more than what you put it it's not really a sacrifice, it's an investment. Just a side note to think about.

Christ asks that we live the law of sacrifice. But recently in a stake conference one of our leaders, President Monson (not the prophet!) posed a question to those of us present. He asked if we live the law of sacrifice or the law of leftovers. Meaning do we say "I will give the Lord what is left over after all else I have to do"? The word sacrifice used to mean to make someone, or something,  holy. If we are truly living the law of sacrifice we are then striving to make ourselves holy. Which would mean we can't just give what's left over, we need to put the Lord first in our lives. The interesting thing about this is when we give of our time, or really when we invest our time in doing the things the Lord has asked, He blesses us immensely. If when the Lord asks "Whom shall I send?" we then stand and answer "Here am I, send me." then the Lord will bless us. In fact in Isaiah 58:9 it says "Then shalt thou ^acall, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. . .". That last part, where the Lord says "Here I am" to us, is translated from the Hebrew word hininee. Check out what Sherrie Mills Johnson said about this:

In the book of Abraham we read of the premortal council when God the Father presented His plan of salvation to us. During that council God said, “Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27).
    The Hebrew word that is translated “Here am I” in these verses is hininee. And it means more than just “I’m here.” It is the kind of word a servant would say to a king when beckoned. It means “Whatever you want me to do, I will do. That’s why I’m here.” In the Old Testament we find the word hininee over and over again. Abraham says it to God (Genesis 22:1), Isaac says it to his father Abraham (Genesis 22:7), Jacob says it to the angel God sends to him (Genesis 31:11), Joseph says it to his father Jacob (Genesis 37:13), and Moses says it to God when God calls to him from the burning bush (Exodus 3:4). It is what Samuel said to Eli when awakened in the night (1 Samuel 3:4), and what Isaiah said to God when called to be a prophet (Isaiah 6:8).
    All these examples urge me to turn to the Lord and say, “Hininee! Here I am ready to serve and do what you want!” But there is one use of the word in the Old Testament that is different, a usage that touches my heart very deeply. In Isaiah chapter 58 the Lord chastises the people who are complaining that God has refused to answer their prayers. He tells them that the reason He has not answered is because they are not resting from their own pleasures on the Sabbath day and that they are not caring for the poor when they fast. Then He says, if you will rest from your own pleasures on the Sabbath and care for the poor when you fast, “Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I” (Isaiah 58:9).
    Every time I read that my heart warms. The Lord is calling to me, “Hininee. Hininee! I am here to help you. What do you want Me to do?” As Isaiah goes on to explain, “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11).
-http://sherriejohnson.blogspot.com/2011/10/here-am-i.html

The Lord is willing to do what we righteously ask of Him. He wants to bless us. His whole purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (see  Moses 1:39). He is wanting us to succeed and to come back to His presence having had the best earthly experience we could possibly have. Not everyone has the same experience here in mortality, but we are promised that if we strive to follow the Lord then all things will work together for our good (see D & C 98:3 and 122:5-7). When I look at how the Lord wants to and will bless me if I will sacrifice my will for His, it is so worth living the law of sacrifice as opposed to the law of leftovers. If we give Him only our leftover time we may find that we just get the leftover blessings!