Day 18—A Living Sacrifice
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1, NIV84)
As we near the end of this 21 Days of Prayer, let’s go even deeper into our full surrender of ourselves to Jesus. Let’s present ourselves as living sacrifices.
Take a moment and consider what the Hebrew reader of that day thought when they read this. The ritual of sacrifice was an intense, bloody scene. They were familiar with the sight, the sound, and the smells of a flawless animal being slain and its blood poured out upon an altar. Parts of the animal may have been burned. Parts were cut up and eaten. It was a horrible scene. No part of the animal was spared.
Which is what was fulfilled once and for all by Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, when he suffered and died, and his blood was poured out on the cross.
The result is that God is no longer requiring the death of an animal as a sacrifice, but he is seeking the life of every believer to be offered completely to him.
Offer your entire body to him. Start with your head, your mind. Take captive every thought country to his will, and devote your thought life to him. Then devote your ears—promise to quit listening to negativity and slander. Your eyes—you will not look at anything displeasing to God. Your mouth—you will only speak what is true and uplifting and what is in line with God’s Word.
Give him your heart, and repent of anything that competes with him for your devotion. Dedicate your hands to do only what is good and to serve God and others. Dedicate your stomach and your appetites. Dedicate your reproductive system to purity and to a godly marriage.
Dedicate your feet to go everywhere (and only where) God wants you to go. Offer your strength to him. Offer your energy to him.
The NIV says that this is your “spiritual act of worship.” I like the old KJV version here—that this is your “reasonable service.” It only stands to reason that since Jesus gave his entire body and life for you, holding nothing back, that you and I would willingly do the same for him. To do so is holy, and it is pleasing to God.
