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Reflection #5
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—you’re sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Romans 12:1 The Message
Lately, I have been in a position of having to “endure” a writing project that is not easy for me. One of the hardest disciplines I have had to exercise is to place my body in front of this computer. As I have struggled with this, the verse above has taken on new meaning. I must embrace what God has for me at this time and I must present myself to the Lord as an offering daily.
Pretty good counsel for any situation we might be in—taking care of children, parents, a hard work situation, sickness. We embrace—hug, welcome, receive warmly—whatever circumstance we are in and “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1 NAS)
I have found that when I place my body as an offering to the Lord, He comforts, strengthens, and encourages me. But every day I must do my part first.
Jeremiah did not resolve to stick it out for twenty-three years, no matter what; he got up every morning with the sun. The day was God’s day, not the people’s. He didn’t get ups to face rejection, he got up to meet with God. He didn’t rise to put up with another round of mockery, he rose to be with his Lord. That is the secret of his persevering pilgrimage—not thinking with dread about the long road ahead but greeting the present movement, every present moment, with obedient delight, with expectant hope. “My heart is ready!” Eugene Peterson
And so, dear Christian friends, I please with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this to much to ask?
Romans 12: 1 New Living Translation
Love in Christ,
Cynthia Heald
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