God is looking for us to be living sacrifices, in other words, God wants us to live for him besides being willing to die for him and all this for his glory. We offer ourselves to him to fulfill his will and to glorify him (Isaiah 43:7). We don't have anything of our own merit to offer such as righteousness, good deeds, morality, or philosophy, nothing but brokenness and strife. We come to God only as the lowest bidder with nothing in our hands but Christ's righteousness.
We've received Christ as an unworthy sinner who had nothing to offer God being at his mercy, saying the "sinner's prayer" in Luke 18:13, which says "God be merciful to me, the sinner." He threw himself on the mercy of God and saw himself as unworthy. John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. See how he appraised himself? Paul never stopped thinking of himself as the chief of Sinners he said am, not was, foremost among them.
The problem is people have their opinion of themselves they won't let go and refuse to see their sin. Martin Luther said it is our job to make them see it. This is not the same as having low self-esteem but having no merit of salvation in God's eyes. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man. We are as bad off as we can be, not as bad as we can be.. Luke 5:8 says, "Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord,"
Our offering to God is all he wants for us, not our gifts. He wants us with all the wrinkles, blemishes pimples, warts, bald spots, missing teeth, eating disorders, disabilities, tears, and all our sins. We must come to him as we are to get a changed life. We don't change our lives and then come to him as up for his approval. Do we have anything that God should desire? God loves us despite all this and sees his potential in us for his ultimate glory
We must realize God rewards us for what he has done through us as it says "Since you have performed for us all our works," (Isaiah 26:12) and "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ is accomplished through me," (Rom. 15:18) and "You who rejoice in Lodebar (naught) and say did we not by our own strengths..." (they are boasting,) and "From Me, comes your fruit," (Hosea 14:8).
We were chosen according to his purpose and grace and according to the good pleasure of his will (2 Tim. 1:9; Ephesians 1:5). I must empathize we don't impress God. It is grace that he has even used us as his vessels of honor rather than vessels of dishonor. We fit into his plans we don't fit him into ours. The kind of sacrifice God wants for us to live for Jesus because it is a purpose and an honor to be used by God and give and offer a sacrifice of worship. We come to Christ on his terms of absolute surrender to his Lordship and ownership of our lives giving up the throne of our heart so that we can live through us.