Present

Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Nothing wants to die. Everything seems to resist death, so there is a fight that comes against death. The flesh is no different. It doesn’t want to die either. It wants to live and be in charge of your life, especially if your flesh has had dominion over you, your life, and your choices. When you were born again, your body became the temple of the Holy Ghost, and now God lives in you. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is quickening your mortal body, which is a direct reference to putting sin under. You don’t have to try and subdue your flesh on your own. This verse gives us a tool. We are to offer our body as a living sacrifice. My wife says, “The only problem with a living sacrifice is it tries to get off the altar.” So, how do you do it then? You can literally do it by offering your body to God.

These are my hands; I ask you to use them for your work. These are my feet; I ask you to take them where you need me to go for you. This is my mouth; I ask you to use it to reach others for you and to share hope, strength, and encouragement through me. You can do it through worship times by lifting your voice, lifting your hands, and expressions that bring praise to the Lord. We have been made holy. Jesus is holy, and He made us holy, but our bodies may want to do unholy things because it has lusts and wants to sin.

By offering your body to the Lord, as a living sacrifice, you are making it holy. By doing things with your body that are pleasing to the Lord, like serving Him through serving people, you are being a living sacrifice and making your body holy. Make no mistake about it, your body still wants to be in charge and get the lusts that it has fulfilled. By doing what this verse says, we are denying our flesh control as we submit it to worshipping the Lord. It is our reasonable service, or our genuine expression of worship to God. When we do this on a daily basis, it will keep us from getting derailed by sin and, therefore, will cause us to be able to finish our course. The devil uses lusts and sin to derail us from our race, but the Word of God gives us the answers so that we can finish with joy.