The Sacrifice That Lives And Breathes

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1

Today it’s considered a “sacrifice” to forego a second dessert or give a dollar to charity.

Contrast that with an Old Testament sacrifice, which was precious, personal and costly.

There is nothing cheap about the sacrifice Paul calls for in Romans 12. Far more than a dead animal or a hard-earned buck, it involves your very life. Listen as John Henry Jowett explains.

WALK WITH JOHN HENRY JOWETT
“The Lord wants my body. He needs its members as ministers of righteousness. He works in the world through my brain, and eyes, and ears, and lips, and hands, and feet. And the Lord wants my body as a ‘living sacrifice.’ He asks for it when it is thoroughly alive!

“We so often deny the Lord our bodies until they are infirm and sickly, and sometimes we do not offer them to him until they are quite worn out. It is best to offer our bodies to the Lord when they are strong and vigorous and serviceable, and when they can be used in the strenuous places of the field.

“And so let me have a daily consecration service, and let me every morning present my body a living sacrifice to God. Let me regard it as a most holy possession, and let me keep it clean. Let me recoil from all abuse of it. Let me look upon my body as a temple, and let the service of consecration continue all day long.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
When God required a sacrifice from his people, he asked for the cream of the crop. In the same way, God is looking today for living sacrifices that can serve him in prime condition and energetic consecration.

Are you ready to give him that? Remember, your body is the temple in which his Spirit resides (see 1 Corinthians 6:19).