“What?”

"What?"

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"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,” Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬, NIV‬‬.

What is our true and proper worship?

It seems we are to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice. But what does that mean?

It means we are to give God our all. Our bodies represent us, the "all of us part," it's who we are. Yet, we love our bodies and often describe ourselves in the most flattering way—due to our egos. The way we describe ourselves is usually linked to a time, past or present in which we were most fit. “Before I had children, I was a size 5.”  We don’t usually say, “Since I have let myself go, I’m now a size….” We usually focus on the best we are or have been.

That is, until we reach an age where all our best traits are behind us, and we then compete with our sufferings:

“I can’t get out of bed until 10am due to my knee and back.”

“Well, it takes me two hours every morning to sort out and take my pills.”

“I’ve been pronounced dead, twice.”

Our bodies are a multi-million-dollar investment. Even a pharmacist sees the value of our bodies, and so does God.

But how do we take these frail masses of cells and create a sacrifice worthy of worship with them?

We begin with transforming our minds. Our bodies will follow what our thoughts and beliefs dictate. If we believe Twinkies are a balanced breakfast food, we will consume them. If we examine their ingredients, we might change our beliefs about them and sidestep that grocery aisle in the future.

Our transformation into God’s kingdom similarly starts with learning to think differently. We need to think differently like Jesus. This will be strange at first, because we have allowed TV shows, movies, news and commercials to fill our gray matter with unbalanced thoughts. When we begin reading the Bible in order to think like Jesus and begin hearing God’s voice, we will realize that our TV shows are not as innocent as we once thought.

For example, couples living together before marriage have become so popular and acceptable in our media when we read, “Keep the marriage bed undefiled,” Hebrews 13:4, we don’t have a file for that in our brains. We often look perplexed and say, “What?”

Renewing our minds begins with an agreement with God’s word. We might not fully understand why, but we believe that God is God and there is no one or nothing like Him. He is the Creator and truly knows what’s best, and therefore, we begin to trust Him at His word.

So, now we begin to use our bodies to honor God, instead of insulting Him with our old ways of thinking and behaving. We have changed our beliefs, and our actions follow. When we believe and obey God, we are indeed worshiping our Creator.

Our actions are proof that we agree with God or are at least trying to figure it out. It becomes worship when we are sincere and wholeheartedly accept God at His word. Our bodies then respond with obedient worship.

Are our bodies in worship shape?

(Please feel free to comment below. I love hearing what you have to say.)

Father,

You alone have figured it all out.

Thank You for calling us and leading us on Your path of right doing.

Thank You for sending us Your Spirit who teaches us along the way to listen, follow and worship You with our all.

Thank You that a transformed mind is possible.

Thank You that You promised—if You began a good work in us—You will see it through to completion.

You really do love us well.

Thank You.

Amen.