Living Sacrifice
by Jackie Epstein
God doesn’t want us to get all cleaned up and have our lives straightened out before we offer ourselves to Him. In fact, He wants the opposite. He wants us to offer ourselves…our whole selves to Him, so that He can be the one to clean us up. We, as mere humans, physically do not have the power to do that on our own, which is exactly why Christ gave Himself up on the Cross. Because He suffered, we have no possible way to become “clean” on our own. Or in other words, be restored of our sins.
God urges us to bring Him our beaten, bruised up bodies, with all the difficulties, troubles and sin it comes with. He wants our honest and authentic self, not our “cleaned up” self. Why? So that He can judge it and point out all of its mistakes and faults? No! He wants our genuine bodies so that He can take it and make it Holy and perfect in His eye. So that He can show us His never ending mercy. So that He can cleanse us from all of our failures, and give us a new soul. It is by His grace, that once we admit every point we fall short of His glory, He will give us a new, resurrected body. God tells us that He is the answer to all of our problems, therefore we MUST start by giving Him our bodies so that He can fix and clean them up.
Read:
Romans 12:1-2
“1 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. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Meditation:
What are some habits you have been struggling with, that you need to ask God to correct in your life, or maybe some you need to create? What is one that you can ask God to help you focus on in this Lenten season?