The Father prepared for Jesus. A body prepared from birth as a sacrifice.
And now God calls us to live the same way: “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice…” (Rom. 12:1a, NET).
God has prepared a body for you too. It’s the one you’re living in. Through the book of Romans, He calls us to present our bodies to Him as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice, “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” (v. 1b). It pleases God when we surrender our bodies to Him. But what does this mean, in practical terms?
He fashioned our bodies to be the vehicle through which to live our lives on the earth. Therefore, offering Him our bodies means to offer Him the entirety of our earthly lives. It means that we offer to Him everything that our hands will ever do, everything our eyes will ever look at, and everywhere our feet will ever walk. We hand over to Him all twenty-four hours of each of our days for His management and direction. We make ourselves completely His.
In the wretched moment when Saul lost his place as king, the prophet Samuel exhorted him with these words: “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22, NLT).
Saul had supposedly set some animals aside to sacrifice to God. However, God did not have his heart. When Jesus presented His own body to the Father for sacrifice, the exact opposite was true. He was yielded in perfect submission to God. Against the agonized voice of His soul, He gasped, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
Tragically, there are individuals who are showing up to church week after week, but have never had their hearts overtaken by Jesus’ love and lordship. The Bible describes them in this way: “These people worship me with their mouths and honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me…” (Isa. 29:13, GWT).
Let it not be said of us! Let’s take a moment before the Lord and ask Holy Spirit to examine our hearts. He loves us so deeply, so achingly, so jealously! Is there an area of our lives that we need to yield to Him in order to enter into His glorious freedom? Beyond the sacrifice of our Sunday mornings and whatever else we give Him, does He have our hearts? Have we made ourselves completely and entirely and utterly His?
(Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!)
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How do we give our whole schedule to Jesus, the entirety of our lives, if we are called to live many of our hours in the secular arena?
Feeding On Jesus 
Love this Scriptural truth: Amen. As to your question:
How do we give our whole schedule to Jesus, the entirety of our lives, if we are called to live many of our hours in the secular arena?
I believe Jesus works that surrender in us over time. I used to try to separate my life into compartiments of “Christian” and “secular” and still catch myself trying to do so, but God has been pulling down these dividing walls, calling me, by His Word, to look for and find Him present all over the place.
I guess my situation is unique because my husband is an unbeliever – but God’s Word calls him “holy” on the basis of the faith He’s gifted me. The more I have received that truth deep in my heart, the more of Jesus I have come to see and embrace in him. My husband is being used by God to sanctify me, to humble me and to strip away my religious pride and self-righteousness, piece by piece by piece to reveal the righteousness of Christ for and in me (and for and in himself).
This experience has had me notice so many more Scriptural Promises of God’s generational faithfulness to His children and His desire that not one should perish, that He is teaching me to lay ahold of, pray into and see unfolding before me. How incredibly humbling, freeing and healing this process has been and continues to be. His heart for us is undivided in unbroken fellowship. Oh that I would rise up in this faith He has gifted me, more and more.
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This is another absolutely beautiful testimony, Anna. I feel the Father’s pleasure in your surrender and faith and perseverance regarding your husband! Absolutely agree that coming into that place of surrender is a gradual process He takes us through.
Also, this comes to mind. That Robert Henderson’s materials could be a real blessing to you as you pray for you husband. He has some powerful teachings on praying for unbelievers, so insightful.
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And this is so good to sit with:
Is there an area of our lives that we need to yield to Him in order to enter into His glorious freedom?
He’s been teaching me to yield the outcome of my obedience to Him and to receive that outcome with open hands, honoring His sovereignty. This is something I see He’s taken me again and again, to lift away my expectations (of a quick fix) to grow in perserverance in Him. So, I guess that’s what I need to yield to Him today afresh: my desire for a quick fix, that I might take eat of His love, patience, kindness and compassion for me and for others.
Beyond the sacrifice of our Sunday mornings and whatever else we give Him, does He have our hearts? Have we made ourselves completely and entirely and utterly His?
I have given my life and heart to Him fully and wholly and I see Him daily proving my heart and life is His, as He convicts me of turning away from Him and leads me back into His arms. It’s Jesus who has made (justification) and is making (sanctification) me “completely and entirely and utterly His” as He transforms me moment by moment, to reveal His sacrifice and surrender for me that enables and empowers my own.
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I’m smiling because I’m reading this comment right after the one where I typed what came up out of my spirit, that He is proud of your perseverance! To then read a moment later, your words about perseverance. Again I believe He wants to affirm your willingness and growth, which is more than you realize!
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May Father have mercy on the Western Church, which the world emulates, as we have set such a horrible example of spending one to two hours praising Him and listening to His word, and then living the rest of the week as “practical atheists.”
“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” Luke 12:48
❤️&🙏, c.a.
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Yes, Abba, have mercy! Bring us back to Your heart!
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