Worship: I’m all yours

Romans 1:1-2 (NIVUK)
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. 

Sometimes I find myself puzzling over complex verses in the Bible, but other times Scripture is crystal clear! If we want a definition of what it means to worship, Romans 12:1-2 couldn’t be clearer. ‘True’ and ‘proper’ worship, Paul says, is found in offering our bodies as living sacrifices. 

These are challenging words! No one in their right mind wants to be a sacrifice. This sounds like unacceptably painful counsel from Paul. Sacrifice, in the Old Testament equalled death. An animal or bird was killed as a substitute for the things God’s people had done wrong. Surely this isn’t the way a loving God wants to treat us?

But Paul, in the book of Romans, is speaking of a different kind of sacrifice. It isn’t dead, it’s LIVING. In Romans chapter 6:11 he writes 'Count yourself dead to sin but alive to Christ Jesus.'

God is worshipped when we realise that we are no longer our own, but every single part of our living bodies - our minds, our words and our actions today - belong to him. 

So, let every act of our bodies be a living act of worship. Let our actions demonstrate that God is our treasure, that Jesus is more precious than anything. Let every act of our living bodies be death to all that dishonours Jesus. Sometimes, yes, that is going to feel painfully hard - but the reward is far greater. We get to bring pleasure to God. He finds this pleasing! What could be better than delighting God himself?

So let today be a day of proper and true worship. A day when we choose to surrender all.

Prayer - Lord, I give myself to you today. Take my ego, my desires, my thought patterns and habits, and may they all be surrendered to you and you alone.