From Stepping Heavenward

"Having been pardoned by your God and Savior, the next thing you must do is to show your gratitude for this infinite favor by consecrating your self entirely to Him, body, soul and spirit. This is the least you can do. He has bought you with a price and you are no longer your own...It is not optional with God's children whether they will pay Him a part of the price they owe Him and keep back the rest. He asks, and He has a right to ask, for all you have and all you are. 

And if you shrink from what is involved in such surrender you should fly to Him at once and never rest till He has conquered this secret disinclination to give to Him as freely and as fully as He has given to you. It is true that such an act of consecration on your part may involve a great deal of future discipline and correction. But as soon as you become the Lord's by your own deliberate and conscious act, He will begin that process of sanctification which is to make you holy as He is holy, perfect as he is perfect. He at once becomes your Physician as well as your dearest and best Friend, but He will use no painful remedy that can be avoided. 

Remember that it is His will that you should be sanctified and that the work of making you holy is His, not yours. At the same time you are not to sit with folded hands, waiting for His blessing.  You are to avoid laying hindrances in His way, and you are to exercise faith in Him as He is  just as able and just as willing to give you sanctification as he was to give you redemption.

And now if you ask how you may know that you have truly consecrated yourself to Him, I reply, observe every indication of His will concerning  you, no matter how trivial, and see whether you at once close in with that will. Lay down this principle as law-God does nothing arbitrary. If He takes away your health , for instance, it is because He has some reason for doing so; and this is true of everything you value; and if you have real faith in Him, you will not insists on knowing the reason. 

If you find in the course of daily events, that your self-consecration was not perfect -that is your will revolts His will -do not be discouraged, but fly to your Savior and stay in His presence til you obtain the spirit in which he cried in His hour of anguish, "Rather, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42) Every time you do this the easier it will be, every such consent to suffer will bring you nearer and nearer to Him; and in this nearness you will find such peace, such blessed, sweet peace as will make your life infinitely happy, no matter what may be it's outside conditions. "

~Stepping Heavenward by Mrs. E. Prentiss in the 1800s