Offer Ourselves

Monday, April 17, 2017

Romans 12:1-2: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let's pray. Dear God, we ask You to continue to guide our hearts and minds to Your will. Lead us by the power of the Holy Spirit, to offer ourselves to Your life and ways. We pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's children say...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! This is the greeting that we said in yesterday's services as well as the greeting we continue to share with each other for the season after Easter. It is a time of great celebration. Jesus is alive! He has risen from the grave in order to give to us a brand new resurrected life while we still live on earth as well as the eternal resurrected life.

And while we are still live on earth, we need to ask ourselves, "Now what? What does my life look like, act like, and live like as 'resurrected people?'" Let's start with our verses today. St. Paul calls us to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice." This means that we offer ourselves to God. We sacrifice the desire to "do what's best for me." We sacrifice our thoughts and actions that are a vain attempt to make us better than we are. We focus upon the sacrifice of God. We set our lives on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Jesus is our source, our motivation, and our strength so that we offer ourselves to Him and "worship" God through our lives.