It’s so easy to forget that I’m living for God rather than He is living for me.

How often do I fill my prayers with a long list of things I want Him to do, or fix, or bring?

But the Apostle Paul told us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”(Romans 12:1)

How quickly this world distracts me from this reasonable service, to be a living sacrifice to my first love —the One who died for me.

Anybody else get distracted?

Perhaps, this is why the Apostle Paul pleaded with such strong words as, “I beseech you”.

And as I read Romans 12, it strikes me that we can only present ourselves as living sacrifices, as Paul points out, “by the mercies of God”.

We can’t approach the throne of a holy God to daily lay down our lives except by the great, unfathomable, MERCY of God.

Jesus made the way for that MERCY and it is our “reasonable service”,for those who have been bought by such a great price, the blood of the Perfect Lamb, to endeavor to daily be “living sacrifices”.

As one of my favorites calls it, it should be “My Utmost for His Highest” (Oswald Chambers).

But how culture, even Christian culture, has strayed away from the idea of living for much more than ourselves.

We enthrone self and feelings, and rarely talk about sacrifice and daily dying.

But Paul said this is simply our reasonable service—it’s not just for the missionary or the pastor. All who bear the name of Christ are called to live this way.

How much time do we spend in trying to order our own lives to attain happiness rather than dying to self and truly living?

And I’m not trying to be legalistic or works-based here, I am just trying to trust God more than I trust me and remember anything He tells us in His Word is for our good.

True joy is not found in a self-centered life but in a God-centered life.

Though we often forget, the old acronym is really true—

J-Jesus
O-Others
Y- You

God is so good to remind us of these truths we can walk in for our good and His glory. ❤️

(I have been in Romans 12 for a few weeks and thought I’d share from there. I hope you’ll join me and share in the comments what the Lord shows you from this full-of-treasure chapter).

Romans12

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