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A Living Sacrifice

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"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. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him."

Romans 12:1

We have a choice, either we live to satisfy our fleshly desires, or we sacrifice our fleshly desires and give the Lord priority. This is our spiritual battle — fleshly desires versus spiritual desires. If we don’t offer our bodies as living sacrifices, Satan will attempt to get a foothold that overrides God’s desire.

Do not conform 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. (Romans 12:2) This verse is the process of renewing our minds so our flesh will not conform to the pattern of this world.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  (2 Corinthians 5:17) The old creation is gone, we are becoming a new creation, and it starts by renewing the mind.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2) Our brain is wired according our thoughts and what we think about the most takes the most real estate in our brains. If we desire to renew our brains, we must change our thinking and wire in Godly thoughts. Our thoughts come from our spiritual soul which enables us to think on things while our brain is renewing. The Lord will change our thinking through prayer, reading scripture, meditation, and fellowship.

In order to overcome giving our flesh priority, our rewired brain and thoughts must now change our hearts. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23) We have changed when we live out of our spiritual hearts, For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) The Lord looks at our hearts by listening to our thoughts. How do get what is our renewing mind into our hearts?

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7) Our hearts change as the Spirit guides our life to minister to people. As our hearts are filled with God’s love, then we are changing to be more like Jesus. We now place God and others first and love drives us to minister to others, and now it becomes easier to control our flesh under control of the Spirit. The more our life follows the Spirit, the more our hearts change to the heart of Jesus.

Today, seek to give priority to the Spirit and not to fleshly desires. Pray for the Lord’s power to live by the Spirit.

Prayer:  Lord, help me to sacrifice my fleshly desires and give priority to your will. I need your power to offer my body as a living sacrifice, just as Jesus did. In Jesus’ name Amen