{"id":1703,"date":"2011-02-09T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:10:30","slug":"sacrifice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/sacrifice-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SACRIFICE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 12:1-2<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–which is your spiritual worship.\u00a0Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.\u00a0Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–His good, pleasing and perfect will.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As I understand it, there was once a chicken and pig who loved farmer Brown.\u00a0Their\u00a0talking led to a plan to honor this man who showed them such attention.\u00a0In any kind of weather he would always appear to feed and care for them.\u00a0By mutual agreement, they\u00a0decided to prepare a fine breakfast for him.\u00a0The hen said proudly, “I will provide the eggs for the breakfast, and you can provide the ham!”\u00a0The pig thought for a minute and then replied, “That does not seem fair.\u00a0Your eggs are nothing but an offering, but\u00a0my ham would require a supreme sacrifice!”<\/p>\n

When we read or hear of religious zealots who throw their lives away in suicide missions, we question, “Why are they doing this?”\u00a0The answer is simply that they have the mistaken notion that they will gain heaven by dying for their cause.\u00a0I shudder to think of their first moment in eternity when they find they have been deceived and will spend an eternity in Hell.<\/p>\n

But what about believers in the Lord Jesus who have been called to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord?\u00a0It is interesting that Paul calls it “living sacrifices!”<\/span>\u00a0In Romans 6:11, Paul says we are to “. . . count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As we go about our day-to-day activities, how many times do we think in terms of eternity?\u00a0I think that if we were honest, we would have to confess that our goals and objectives have to do with the things of this world–things which will pass away when we bid this world goodbye.\u00a0Let me try to apply what Paul has written here–steps which will show that we are paying the cost of discipleship:\u00a0<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Consciously\u00a0offer ourselves to God.<\/strong>\u00a0“Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”<\/span> Get all alone where there will be no distractions.\u00a0Begin by talking openly with the Lord.\u00a0Tell Him of your love for Him and your desire to be at His disposal.\u00a0You may even want to hold your hands, palms up, in front of you, as you tell the Lord that you are presenting yourself to Him, to be used by Him in any way He chooses.\u00a0Ask Him to let you know if you are taking yourself back out of His hands.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Recognize that this giving of ourselves to God is the highest form of worship.<\/strong>\u00a0“- – – which is your spiritual worship.”<\/span> It is much deeper than singing a hymn, giving an offering, or listening to a powerful sermon.\u00a0It is the one-on-one time alone with God, in total surrender.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Stop conforming to the world.<\/strong>\u00a0“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” <\/span>Boy! That is harder than it sounds.\u00a0We have become so accommodating of the world’s value system that we seldom realize what we are doing.\u00a0Ask God to show you the times you are living under the world’s values, not His.\u00a0As soon as you see what you are doing, stop doing it!<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0<\/span>“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0I remember when my son was young they had “Transformer toys.”\u00a0As I understand it, there is a new transformer movie as well as toys.\u00a0A transformer is a small toy, like a car, that you would rotate in such a way that it became a fierce looking robot.\u00a0That is not the transformation Paul is speaking about.\u00a0It is the renewing of our mind to know what the good, acceptable and perfect will of God is for us.<\/p>\n

We can only pay the price of true discipleship by spending quality time in the Word of God<\/em>, and making a habit of being in prayer continually.\u00a0If this sounds strange, it only means that we need\u00a0to sacrifice ourselves to God.\u00a0The mind is a fantastic thing.\u00a0We can be talking with someone, and praying at the same time.\u00a0We can be reading printed material and talking with God at the same time.\u00a0We can be doing many necessary tasks, and all the while be speaking with the God we have yielded ourselves to.<\/p>\n

Sound interesting?\u00a0Do you want spiritual power that will change your world?\u00a0Are you interested in being used by God in all you do and say?\u00a0Follow the steps that Paul gives us!<\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
\n– – – Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n

360-570-0074
\nPastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com<\/a>
\nP.S. – You can find previous E-Votionals covering a variety of Scriptures and topics to help you in your walk with the Lord at www.Daily-E-Votional.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–which is your spiritual worship.\u00a0Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.\u00a0Then you will be able to test and approve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}