Offering Our Bodies

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“…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” — Rom12:1
Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice means we do not live for our desires, our plans, our dreams, or ourselves. All of that is surrendered to Jesus and we live for Him. We live out the prayer “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…”
The difficulty we face is that this is an everyday decision. Author Harold Sala said, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar.” Though we have made a decision to follow Christ and worship Him, each day we have to make the decision to live it out. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice or to have a lifestyle of worship.

Focus On God And His Priorities

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“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” — Matt6:33
In the first of the Ten Commandments, God commanded the Israelites to serve Him exclusively because He was worthy of their trust, as He had proved by delivering them from Egypt. Later, just before Moses died and the Israelites entered the promised land, God inspired Moses to remind the people of their single-minded calling.
God’s people needed to submit fully to his authority and believe he could provide all they needed. It’s this kind of trust that Jesus calls us to demonstrate as his disciples.
Unfortunately, Jesus’ disciple Peter had a bit more trouble retaining his single-minded focus when he was met with distraction. Peter’s experience is a good reminder of how we are to think about Jesus, and keep our eyes on him, even when our thoughts get sidetracked or we feel frightened. (See Matthew 14:22-36).

Pressure Creates Diamond and Fire Refines Gold

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Peter uses the symbolism of fire as a way to refine or purify our faith as he writes in 1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The language of the Bible is rich with metaphor. The biblical writers used familiar, everyday objects to symbolize spiritual truth.
Naturally, faith is not something that can pass through the fire but the symbolism with which Peter writes means that our trials refine our faith and burn everything away that is not genuine faith. So that all which remains is our faith that will result in the praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ returns.

God Does Everything for a Reason

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God does everything for a reason, because He is a God of purpose. His actions are not arbitrary. “The LORD Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand'” (Isaiah 14:24). God is a God of purpose, and everything He has created in this world, including men and women, has been created to fulfill His purposes.
Hence, the purpose of prayer is not to bend God to our will, but to align ourselves to His will as we pray.
By abiding in Christ, and letting His word to abide in us, we will learn to pray according to his will not ours (John 15:7)
A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.—Proverbs 16:9
Let us pray:
Whatever it takes, Lord, align my desires with yours, so that my dreams align with your purposes. Let your will be done through me.

Who is your Master?

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“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” — Rom 6:16
You surely have a master and to whomsoever you yield yourself to obey is your master. It’s very easy to claim that Jesus is our master but what about our works and deeds? Are we truly His servants? Deep down in your heart, can you boldly say of Jesus that He’s your master?
Maybe you’re always in a hurry, trying to beat the traffic, trying to complete your daily tasks and merely whispering a prayer while on your way rather than taking timeout to pray. What really motivates you to do what you do? God or money?
Mathew 6 v 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Who are you really honoring and serving?

Are you weak in faith?

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Sometimes you feel weak spiritually. And when you do, you probably feel like you’re the only one. However, you’re not alone. Every Christian experiences times of weakness.
What does weak faith feel like? Sometimes it manifests itself in: wondering if God is in control. Doubting God’s forgiveness.
Worrying about the future.
Weakness doesn’t have to be the new normal! God has the power to strengthen you. Luke 17:5 the apostles came to Jesus asking Him, “Increase our faith!” Also, a man cries to Jesus in Mark9:24, “I believe; help my unbelief!” For the God who created the Universe – who delivered the Israelites – who raised His Son – can (and wants to) strengthen your faith.
How?….faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)
Hence, let us spend some time in His Word.

Faithful Service

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“But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.”” (Acts 9:15)
After Saul accepted Christ and believed, God sent Ananias to to deliver a message with instructions. As God conversed with Ananias, He referred to Saul as a Chosen Instrument that is to proclaim the name of Christ.
We too, are chosen instruments of God that are expected to be of faithful service to Him through the gifts and talents that He provided to us.
But am I?
Am I a faithful servant or am I a selective servant one?
Am I using my gifts and talents or am I burying them in the ground?

Apply the Word

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“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” — James 1:23‭-‬24
When we accept Christ, our lives must be a reflection of who he is in us. Therefore, we ought not to hear or read the Word of God and not apply it to our lives.
Saul made it his mission to imprison all the believers in the synagogues in Damascus. However, he was saved and therefore became a believer. By right then, he was expected to be imprisoned as well but Saul never ran. He read and applied the Word of God accessible to him at the time (the Old Testament). Afterwards, he went to the same synagogue in Damascus and began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts9:20).
☆Saul boldly declared who Jesus was but do we?
☆Do people know you’re a believer?
☆Or are you keeping it hush hush?
☆When you look into the mirror are you forgetting what you look like?

Willful Obedience

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“Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.” — Deut 8:6
Christian life is one of obedience which is voluntary – by choice as we are operating our faculty of freewill. This obedience however should be willing for ‘delayed obedience is disobedience.
Obedience of God should involve our whole being, where we ought to be cheerful, passionate, and joyful. Why? Because God has our best interest at heart…
Plan of Action
As you read scripture, list the truths & commands which you discover. Then make a decisive effort to obey each of them.

How to Plead for Unbelievers

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“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” (Romans 10:1)
Paul prays that God would convert Israel. He prays for her salvation! He does not pray for ineffectual influences, but for effectual influences. And that is how we should pray too.
We should take the new covenant promises of God and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and our neighbors and on all the mission fields of the world.
God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give them a new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)
Circumcise their heart so that they love you! (Deuteronomy 30:6)
Father, put your Spirit within them and cause them to walk in your statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)
Grant them repentance and a knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil. (2 Timothy 2:25–26)
Open their hearts so that they believe the gospel! (Acts 16:14)
When we believe in the sovereignty of God — in the right and power of God to elect and then bring hardened sinners to faith and salvation — then we will be able to pray with no inconsistency, and with the confidence of great biblical promises for the conversion of the lost.
Thus, God has pleasure in this kind of praying because it ascribes to him the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is in election and salvation.
(By John Piper)