Romans 12:1 says that we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is our spiritual act of worship”. This was part of the introduction to my devotional book for the month of September. I had read this verse many times, but I was taken by the commentary that accompanied it stating that we are called to be a living sacrifice makes this decree much more difficult to heed. If we were called to be a dead sacrifice, we could make a one-time decision to sacrifice our lives and it would be done! Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we are called to be a LIVING sacrifice! That means, as we are squirming on the altar, we have to make repeated decisions whether we want to stay on the altar by living and loving sacrificially or jump off.
I read this nearly two months ago and have thought back to it many times during my stay here. Living and loving sacrificially is as much about the little daily decisions as it is about the big ones. While leaving the US to go to Nigeria doesn’t initially seem to be on the same level as giving away some of Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies, I’m pretty sure the latter felt more sacrificial! The point is that each of us has innumerable times each day when we can choose to live and love sacrificially in worship to God or we can choose live according to selfish motives. (These can produce much more personally favorable results ephemerally, which is likely why, evolutionarily speaking, we would be inclined to yield to them….the science part of me can’t just be turned off!) However, in the end, choosing to live and love sacrificially not only pleases God eternally, but it also serves to edify those around us in the present!
I write this not because I have everything figured out, because I don’t, but because living sacrificially on a moment to moment basis is something that has presented itself to me many times throughout my stay here starting with the devotional and coming up in a variety of church services and Bible Studies. It must be important…God knows to be persistent with me!
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2 comments:
I love that title! And it's so true, living sacrificially can be in the tiniest detail! So the next question I ask is, what are the ramifications of not living sacrificially?
There will always be more cookies. And if not, just munch on some groundnuts! :)
In response to a previous post: the commenting on other people's weight is definitely normal here, too. Any change in your appearance, even if you've LOST weight, the women will say "You got fat!" They see it as a compliment. Luckily, I don't hear it too often- but I know other girls who get it all the time!
~Laura M.
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