By Carol Fell 

I just finished a Bible study on Romans.  It was a good Bible study, and I was challenged by many of the lessons.  I was particularly challenged by 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 – this is you spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

What does it mean “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices”?  We know that in the Old Testament sacrifices were given to God.  These sacrifices were totally His, and they were usually completely used up or consumed.  Now Paul is telling us to offer ourselves as ‘living’ sacrifices.  What that means to me is that it is not a one time sacrifice, but it is an ongoing process of giving all I am to God.  It’s a lifetime of serving Him with everything I am and have and will be.  It’s being totally focused on my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, allowing Him to be my priority, knowing that everything else in life flows out of that complete surrender.  Paul says this is our spiritual act of worship.  Real worship is not just what we do on Sunday morning at church, but it is also what we do on a day by day basis.  It’s in giving even the ordinary tasks to Him, doing everything as if it was for God alone. 

Then Paul says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  No doubt we’ve all been in Sunday School classes or Bible studies where we’ve talked about the dangers of Christians conforming to the world.  We know that our senses are bombarded in so many ways by the values and things of the world, whether by television, by secular reading, on our computers, by advertisements, and much more.  There doesn’t seem to be a way of escaping it.  It’s all around us.  So how do we not conform to the world around us?  I think it goes back to being totally focused on Jesus, making Him our priority, allowing Him to be truly Lord in our lives.  Philippians 4: 8 says it this way,

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”  Sam Storms in his book, One Thing, says this about those ‘things’… “Merely acknowledging that such ‘things’ exist is woefully deficient.  More than defining them and defending them as worthy of our affection is needed.  We must actually “think” about them, ponder them, pour over them, and become vulnerable to the power God has invested in them to transform our values and feelings and to energize our volitions.”  We have to actively focus on spiritual things, the things of God, more so than on the world around us.  As we focus more and more on Jesus, then as the song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, then the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  So true!! 

                Perhaps you can take a small step this week by taking that hour you might have spent reading a secular book or watching a program on television or spending time on your computer and instead spend it focusing on Jesus.  You might do that by spending time in the Bible, in prayer, listening and worshipping with Christian music, reading a good Christian book…choose whatever way you want that helps you focus on spiritual things, on the things of God.  If you do this for this week and then continue on into the next week or weeks, I believe that pretty soon you will be spending more and more time thinking about the ‘such things’ as Philippians talks about.  Your mind will be more focused on Jesus and less on the world around you. You’ll find it’s time well spent, and you will be the one who reaps the benefits.