PRAYER: Lord, lead me to be a living sacrifice. Help me to grow spiritually by being transformed by Your Word and the power of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Reset my priorities to align with Your will. Transform my mind and my life to Your eternal purposes!
DAY 8 - READ ROMANS 12:1-2
These verses in Romans demonstrate that we are the living body of Christ. Peter called us to be living stones, and now Paul calls us to be living sacrifices. Living objects are active, growing, and reproducing. If not, these living objects will move towards a state of decline and eventual death. Paul calls us to be living sacrifices, actively being transformed through God’s Word and through doing God’s will for our lives. This is contrasted with being conformed to the world.
What values do you conform to? Where do you reshape yourself in order to fit in? Anything advertised to make us the greatest, the most successful, the most satisfied, or the most comfortable can capture us and conform us to its particular set of values. When we are conformed, we take the shape of the object we are emulating. But when we are transformed by God, we take the shape of a new object—Jesus Christ!
In the Old Testament, sacrifices required a lamb to die and the result was only temporary. Jesus offers us the opportunity to be a living sacrifice. What a contrast! Instead of needing to die, we are offered life—eternal life. True life comes through being a living sacrifice as we transform our lives to be like Jesus and live with eternal purpose in all we do. How do we do this? In part, it’s through living life in Christ together as a church body. We gather to worship, grow, and serve together and then scatter to share the good news of the gospel. As Paul tells us in Romans, we renew our minds through the study of His Word. Just as a seed transforms into a plant or tree and then bears fruit, as we grow together we are transformed into a living sacrifice for Christ.
Paul calls us to give ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice. A sacrifice, by definition, gives its all—it gives everything. Otherwise, it cannot be called a sacrifice. How are you being transformed to give your all for Christ and live out His will? What standard are you using in your life to know whether you are truly being transformed? How is God’s Word entering your mind and changing you? Are you conformed to this world or are you being transformed?
ACTION ITEM
Think about the things you are currently being conformed to. What are you stubborn about? What is so important to you that it keeps you from doing things according to God’s plan? Write those things down, and then make a commitment to be transformed by God’s Word to His will for your life.