July 18, 2024 Daily Dose of Discernment

So brothers, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I urge you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. (Romans 12:1)

After a comprehensive essay on the amazing grace of God, Paul encourages his readers to offer themselves as a sacrifice, not as a prerequisite to God's mercy, but as a response to the goodness He initiates. He says it is their spiritual (i.e., only right, appropriate, fitting, proper, sensible, reasonable, rational, logical, authentic, true ) act of worship.

The Message translation says, "Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. In other words, whatever we do, let us do it all for the glory of God. Again, not because by law we have to, but because in gratefulness, we want to.