What does that mean for me, a follower of Christ to offer myself as a living sacrifice?
I remember when my sister and I were kids, we used to love to ride bikes together. We'd go everywhere on our bikes and we only had one speed, fast. A leisurely bike ride just wasn't in our vocabulary. As we zipped around town at mach speed one day, my sister said that she needed to slow down. I being the loving and understanding sister that I am said,
"What's wrong you big baby? Can't handle the speed?"
My sister responded to my ever so kind words with,
"My heart is racing and I just don't feel very good".
Well in that case I thought, I guess we can slow down. It wasn't long after that my sister had a similar episode when we were playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Mom and dad were in on this episode so they decided to take Andrea to the hospital. We soon learned that my sister needed heart surgery. That made me feel really great for my loving comments while on that bike ride.
I remember sitting in that waiting room during the surgery. I was really afraid. I was only 11 years old and I really wasn't sure what to expect or how to feel. I just knew that my best friend was now lying on an operating table and there was nothing I could do to make her better. She was at the mercy of the doctors now.
Thankfully my sister had a successful surgery. We were back to riding bikes at mach speeds soon after.
As I reflect on that moment in my sister and I's life it helps me better understand what Paul says when he tells us to offer our bodies as a "living sacrifice".
My sister could do nothing to fix her heart. She was at the mercy of the doctors. The ones who had a higher authority, the ones who knew how to fix her heart. Had my sister continued to ride bikes at neck breaking speeds and run up and down the basketball court without having heart surgery the doctors said, eventually, her heart would have burst. She would have died instantly.
The reality is that you and I live with a sin sickness. The bible says that the heart is deceitful, it is beyond cure. To follow our heart is to follow our feelings. It's to follow a wisdom that centers around desire and pleasure. Our hearts run around without self-control, until eventually we nearly become destroyed by the pursuit of desire and pleasure.
In the Old Testament the High Priest would go in once a year to the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice for the sins of the Jewish nation. This would be a lamb, pure and spotless that would satisfy God's requirement for atonement of sin.
When Jesus dies on the cross He became that lamb. He was pure and spotless, without defect and had no sin. The book of Hebrews tells us that He now reigns as High Priest forever.
I have this picture in my mind of us offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. What I see is for us to cease doing, fretting, worrying and allowing our feelings and hearts to dictate our every move and to lay ourselves down on the operating table of God's mercy.
To offer our bodies as a "living sacrifice" is to become completely dependent upon the great and mighty healer, Jesus Christ. It is to place ourself at His mercy, trusting in His will. We must lay down our own will, hurried hearts and scattered minds. It is to cease doing as we actively lay down our lives at the altar of sacrifice. It is to say God, I'm done with me. I'm done trying to come up with the right answers to try to convince myself that I know whats best for my life.
It is to say, God, I recognize that my heart is deceitful and it is beyond cure. This is why I need your grace and mercy to walk with me, moment by moment and breathe by breathe. As we lay down our lives as a "living sacrifice" we join in agreement with God that He is in control, that His way is best for our lives. In that agreement is where our hearts and our minds find rest. As we sit and rest in the presence of God on the altar of sacrifice it is there where our hearts start to change and heal. It is there where God starts to tether in us a new mind, centered on His thoughts, His peace, and His perseverance.
Charles Spurgeon so eloquently says, "lie passive in the hands of God and know no will but His".
I'm wondering who needs to enter into the altar of sacrifice where the Lord Jesus awaits to give you joy, peace and hope. Who needs to offer their body as a living sacrifice and place themselves at the mercy of our Great Physician, Jesus Christ?
Just as my sister put herself at the mercy of those doctors long ago to be made well God wants to do the same for you and I today. His desire is for us to be set free and to know the healing and life changing power of Jesus Christ as we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.
Place your life on the operating table of God's mercy and watch as He makes your heart and your mind brand new.
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