Day 23

Romans 12: 1-2 “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. Do not conform 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.”
This can’t be any clearer. Bodies and mind. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, and not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds…
How do we sacrifice our bodies? By letting go of anything that we hold more dear than Jesus (including Oreos). By taking care of our health. By walking as Jesus walked (lived) and involving Jesus in our physical decisions. Instead of walking in a comfortable, anything goes lifestyle where we sit on our couches for hours of TV entertainment and eat however much we want of whatever we want to eat with no regard for our health, we have to be mindful of our health. Ouch!
What does it mean to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? -Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.” This is a return to Imago Dei. We give up thinking the way that the rest of the world does and take on the mind of Christ, which changes how we think about God, ourselves, everything around us, everyone around us, our choices, etc.
-Then we will know the will of God. We have to sacrifice our will/desires/way of thinking, to be able to know his will. I don’t know about you, but I can convince myself that just about anything is God’s will if it is something I want to do. So, I definitely have to have myself out of the way to be able to really hear the Spirit speaking His will. This goes along with Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Prayer: Lord, I need you to show me how I can be a living sacrifice in this world. I need you to transform my mind to your image so that I can love you and others the way you do. Help me to surrender everything into your loving hands and receive this amazing gift that you have for me.