Week 2 - Feast on the Lamb
Worship
As you begin your devotional today I encourage you to listen to “Rest” by UPPEROOM & Oscar Gamboa. It’s a long one! I encourage you to sit in the presence of the Lord for as long as you are able, while he ministers to your heart.
Scripture
Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Devotional
The Bible encourages us as Christians to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. In this sense we are to yield our bodies, in their entirety, to submit to the will and commands of God. In this sense we are to die to ourselves - our own will, ambition and pleasure are to come second to the will, ambition and pleasure of God. This is in part what it looks like to take up our cross and follow Jesus.
The interesting part, however, is that we are to be a living sacrifice. We are to offer ourselves on the altar every day and are to live on the altar. Jesus said that “whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:19)
Usually a sacrifice is to be killed before it is sacrificed on the altar, because animals have a tendency to wriggle off altars! Funnily enough so do we, we can second guess submitting ourselves to God are often tempted to get off the altar and serve our own ambition or pleasure again. And yet, God requires a living sacrifice, that we lay down our lives, our bodies to him every single day.
Even if we want to live in holiness and submission to God’s ways and commands, it isn’t easy! I don’t know about you but the battle for the will is a daily battle, and my human will is often fighting against the Holy Spirit. So what are we to do? Give up and say ‘it’s all to hard, I just can’t do this day in and day out’? Unfortunately many give up because they don’t understand how God has made it possible!
So how can we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice? The scripture tells us right at the beginning of the verse: ‘by the mercies of God’. It is actually only through the grace of God given to us that we can even attempt to be a living sacrifice. So if you feel like wriggling off the altar today, remember that we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, which is holy and acceptable to God as an act of spiritual worship, and that this can only happen as we ask God to empower us by his mercy. Remember its "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech 4:6)
Prayer
Pray for God to give you mercy and grace today to continue to offer your body as a living sacrifice. We need to humbly ask for God’s empowering grace every single day!