Welcome!
Today: An offering of praise; an offering of pain
Passage: Rom 12
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. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12, NKJV) –emphasis added
You might have heard and sung the song that has these wordings: “there’s pain in the offering”
It is God’s will that you and I must conform to God’s image day after day
We need to look at God daily and meditate on Him
The more we worship God, the more changes will be there, God-ward
You have seen children who are fans of great players trying to imitate them
Jesus descended from heaven to the earth. From the cross, he started his ascension process. Those three days marked the most important days in world history. Golgotha hosted the (most) perfect sacrifice and worship
Let me bring to you the picture of something from real world
It so happens that sometimes people fall on the rail tracks, in the station.
If they try to climb up to the platform and an oncoming train is too close, they may get hit by it and get “wedged” between the train and the edge of the platform. That is a horrific scene. In most cases, the person may still be alive for a few minutes and die
If that was difficult for you to take, look at the cross. Jesus went through something much worse than that. His whole body was battered and bruised that he was no longer recognizable as a man! What we see in pictures is nothing comparable to the real one. That was how bad, the our sins were
Every time we worship God, it must involve a sacrifice. If we did not sacrifice something, we did not worship!
On the cross, Jesus wanted to make a perfect offering knowing that it was the last one. If Jesus offered anything less than perfect, the whole sacrifice was going to be of no good!
As we worship God, something in us that was conforming to the world must get broken off and we must conform to God, in that area
The basic theme of worship/sacrifice is “not my will, but thine”. When we choose to decide what we must get rid off in our life, it may not be enough. We need to know what God wants us to get rid off. That will be painful!
Let us ask God to show us what(sacrifice) needs to be done in our lives
We may need a change in our lifestyle, our routines. We have to sacrificially set apart time for God. Doing it in spare time or if-i-get-time is no sacrifice!
May God bless you and guide you
BG
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank you for your perfect sacrifice on the cross. I know you did all of that to make me perfect in fron of the father. Show me what I need to get rid off, so that I can live and worship in a way that pleases you. Amen
“A true sacrifice of praise is a sacrifice of pain as well”