Romans 12:1, “I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”
What does it look like to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God. LIVING – it’s how you live. LIVING – it’s continual. God is not interested in this one big thing you do one time, or this great thing you do on special occasions – he’s asking for you to recognize all he has done for you and respond with your entire life.
What has God done for you? Really – think about that. Only when you know what God has really done for you, can you then respond correctly.
First, God has given you life. He is literally the only reason you’re here today. He created you in your mother’s womb, knit you together according to his design and breathed life into you. But it wasn’t a one time event – he continually breathes life into you. The very air you’re breathing right now, that’s the breath of God giving you life. If he stops, you stop. He gives you life, moment by moment, breath by breath.
God has given you blessings you don’t deserve. Goodness you never even asked for. Favor you weren’t qualified for. And promises your human mind still can’t comprehend. Everything you have is because of him. Every good and perfect gift is directly from him. Every flower you’ve ever been given – that was him. Every beautiful sunny day – him. Every summer rain shower – him. Every sweet night of rest – him. Every moment of peace – yip, him again. Everything that ever worked for you, everything that ever came together, everything that ever fell into place – it was all him.
What has God done for you? Oh my sister, he has done everything.
And then he made the impossible happen for you – he gave Jesus for you. There was such a gap between you and the laws of God that you would forever fall short of his glory, so God gave Jesus as the sacrifice for your forgiveness. His blood covers you. Throughout the old testament we read of the requirement of sacrifices to cover sin. Animals had to be slaughtered, blood had to be offered, atonement had to be bought. But Jesus’ blood covers us once and for all, making us forever good enough.
God did that for you.
A monumental day in my life was the day someone stood on my porch and asked my first name. I said, “Pamela.” They then said, “John 3:16 – For God so loved Pamela, that he gave his one and only son so that she wouldn’t perish, but she would have eternal life.” He did that for me. And if I would have been the only person in the world, he would have given Jesus just for me.
And that’s your truth too. Jesus was for you. God did that all for you.
When you know God has given you literal life, he’s given you every good thing you will ever experience in your life, and he’s saved your life and promised you an eternity in a perfect paradise with him … well, my sister, that should change the way you live this life. This awareness makes you want to offer your whole life as a living sacrifice.
Living – the way you live.
Living – a continual act, not a one time thing.
What would your life as a living sacrifice look like? To put this into very practical terms we can understand and begin using immediately, let’s look at Romans 12:1 in the MSG translation:
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping – eating, going to work, and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”
This is simply living your ordinary life with the ...