Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Today, our Scripture is Romans 12:1-5 …

And so, dear brothers and sisters, 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. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. (NLT) We’re all grateful that God no longer requires any sort of physical sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, right? But yet, sacrifice is still a crucial part of following Jesus. In fact, it’s an everyday event. From the desires of our bodies, minds, hearts, and attitudes, we have to give up what we want if we are going to honor God and others. Notice what this sacrifice gains us … we realize we are part of a greater Body of believers, a community of people who belong to and function together.

Listen once again to this passage as I read excerpts from The Message Bible… 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. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. … we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. … So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

Today, what do you need to sacrifice?

What do you need to embrace?

What do you need to readily recognize that God is wanting to tell you about your life, your community, your role in His kingdom and Body?

Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, take my everyday, ordinary life—my sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life. I give myself to You. I embrace all You have for me. I ask You to bring out the best in me, for You and for the sake of those You desire for me to reach. As above, so below.”