“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service”
They say the problem with being a living sacrifice is that we keep crawling off of the altar.
Isaiah said it this way: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way.”
We are so inclined to draw close to God and then turn away. We are spiritually ADD. S.A.D.D. One minute we are following God and seeking his face, the next we are back to serving our own desires. At least that’s my problem. I can flip back and forth from servant to self-righteous seamlessly.
But God’s grace and mercy keep bringing me back. Like a lost sheep, the good Shepherd comes and finds me when I wander and get lost. Have you ever prayed that God would just keep you from messing up? I have. The hymn writer, John Wyeth, said it beautifully:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy grace Lord like a fetter
Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing -John Wyeth
Public Domain

I admit, I finally looked it up. What is a fetter? I had no clue. It is a shackle. It is used to chain a prisoner at the ankles. It is indeed God’s grace that keeps me from wandering far. “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
Of all things to bind us to God, grace is a great one! Praise God for all of his gifts; we have so much to be thankful for.