It’s All Yours

Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
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.

I used to love playing rugby. I loved the graft of training in the gym. The pain of pushing my lungs to their limits on the rowing machine. The relentless burden of washing muddy training kit. The exploding joy of seeing all that pay off as a pre-planned move works out under the floodlights at Grange Road.

I also used to love wrestling with other athletes from university about what it means to be a Christian on a sports team, living life so closely alongside your teammates. Christians in Sport is a brilliant organisation that supports young people and adults alike, in recreational and elite level sports throughout the country.

We would often reflect on this call from Paul to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, and in doing that performing in our sports as an act of worship. In the words of the Olympian Eric Liddell, whose name you might recognise from ‘Chariots of Fire’, ‘When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.’

Whether your world seems to revolve around faith, family, a profession, a hobby, a talent – the message from the start of this chapter applies the same. Offer your involvement with that thing to God as a sacrifice, view it as worship, and let God do with it what he wants. The passage tells us that sometimes this will mean not conforming to the pattern of this world, as Eric found out one Sunday in Paris, 1924. The passages also tells us that in doing this our perspective will be transformed, viewing things through God’s eyes.

Today I challenge you to think what is the part of your life that you need to offer as a sacrifice to God, and ask for his perspective on.

Prayer – Lord God, help me to live in a way where I view my life as a sacrifice, offering it back to you as an expression of gratitude. I know this will seem like foolishness to many, but it is what you ask of me, and what you deserve.

Thank you for reading our Daily Devotionals. They will pause over the summer and resume again on 09 September.