Living Sacrifice - by Elizabeth Reynolds

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice... and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:1)

What does it mean to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? With those words I get a picture of someone tied down to a stone table and someone standing close by with a knife. Now, the word living tells us this is not what God wants and it's obviously not what He means. We know that Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all.

But we are still called to sacrifice. In Hebrews, the bible talks about offering to God a sacrifice of praise. But this is not necessarily just talking about our weekly worship session on a Sunday morning at church (or wherever / whenever you are doing that these days).

What does it look like to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? I think we should be careful not to go too figurative on this one. Let's keep it literal and present our body daily and literally in some way to the Lord in some way. Stand or kneel or lift your hands, not in a ritualistic way, but as a demonstration of praise to God. If you do this in some way, each day, you'll find it will be more than just a physical exercise, but a renewing of your mind, for our mind turns toward what our body does.

If we know that what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them (Matthew 15:11), then perhaps what comes out of our mouth can also build us up.

So let what comes out of our mouth be praises to God (which, when you think about it is a sacrifice sometimes - how much do we sometimes just really want to use our words to curse or speak negatively?) And let what you do with your bodies be an offering of praise to God as well.

Deliberately and intentionally each day - do something. Begin with worship at the start of your day - before anything else occurs, bow your knees and say, "Lord, this day is yours and so am I."