Romans 12:1 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 your spiritual act of worship.
What does it look like to offer your body as a living sacrifice? That is my question. Paul describes it as a spiritual act of worship. It seems like a physical act of worship, and I think many people read this verse as such. We try to "beat" our bodies into submission through workouts and diets, aiming to make our bodies the perfect temple for God. That's not what I'm gathering from Paul's writing here. He is stating that by offering our bodies as living sacrifices we are worshipping the Father spiritually. So how does one go about doing so? Offering your body to God means you are turning over your earthly desires to him to transform and remove any inkling of temptation that can come through the body. This type of sacrifice is spiritual in nature because it requires a heart change. The heart change is the Spirit's work and my spirit can only truly worship God when my body gets out of the way. This is my journey for Lent, to allow God to change my heart such that the things and thoughts, of which there are many, that tempt my physical body will no longer cause me to stumble. These thoughts and moments may come across my path, but my heart will be such that it has no desire for the earthly reward. My heart will be fixed on things above and the reward that is in Christ Jesus. May this be the time when I gain the full understanding of the words, "and lead us not into temptation".
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