Living sacrifices
Day 570, Wednesday, Mar. 4
Romans 12:1-8
Under the Old Testament law worship involved making sacrifices to God from the fruit of our labors: gifts from crops and flocks.
Now in the New Testament what Paul said the proper sacrifice is not the fruit of our labor, but our labor itself. Rather than giving God part of what we produced, we are to give ourselves to God. Both our bodies and our minds are to be surrendered to God for his use.
“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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
In an image he will expand on in 1 Corinthians, Paul says we are one body, formed by Christ. We have different gifts, but one mission. He advises: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
This isn’t just a call to humility—it’s a call to honest assessment. We shouldn’t pridefully claim gifts we have not been given, but neither should we withhold from the church the gifts we have received.
-Rev. Mark Fleming
Wednesday meditation
Psalms 89:19-29
Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people. I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him. My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not get the better of him; the wicked will not oppress him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries. My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted. I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers. He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.
Prayer focus
Show us our gifts, God, that we may use them boldly for the building of your kingdom, letting neither pride nor false humility get in the way.