Sunday 23 Aug 2020

August 23: Romans 12:1-2

Key Verse: Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.

Devotion:
Nicodemus was willing to try ans find out how he could be saved from this debt he owed because of his sinfulness. He came to ask Jesus how he could do this and the answer was a whole lot simpler than Nicodemus probably thought. To simply present himself to God because of what Jesus would do on the cross for us all...

Once you have made the decision to allow Jesus fully into your life, you need to think about how you live your life! If you are going to tell God you are willing to be a Christian, then you should also be willing to start acting like one – to change your life away from the sinful things which were a part of your life and to aim to be more righteous – not so you can be assured a place in Heaven, but to show God you are serious about being a Christian!

If you went around telling people you were a Christian and acted nothing like a Christian, a lot of people would question whether you were a Christian! God would love us to be good examples because that would encourage others to be more like that too! This is why the author here reminds the people to present themselves as a living sacrifice… not that there needs to be a physical sacrifice…

If you are willing to give something up, like you sinful life, then you are actually making a sacrifice because you are stopping that part of your life you once thought to be normal and aim to be more like Jesus asks us to be. This is our living sacrifice which we should aim to live every day as a Christian. We don’t have to do things the way we used to or the way anyone else says we should be – we should be trying to live according to how God wants us to live...

Points to Ponder:
Do you give in to the old ways you used to live?

Or are you making a sacrifice and living a more righteous life?