Presenting Our Bodies to Christ – Day 9 of 21 Prayer/Fast

Romans 12:1-2

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.  2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

During our prayer/fast we have written and discussed presenting ourselves to God – making a sacrifice for Jesus.  Today’s passage in the 21 Day Fast devotional reading plan can be found here.  The reading is the 12^th chapter of Romans – which starts with the two verses above.  These are two of my favorite verses in the Bible.  They speak about offering God our selves – our bodies and our souls even!

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do we feel like we are making a sacrifice during our Prayer/Fast?  If not – maybe we should up our challenge – fasting from more things and spending more time in prayer.  We wrote about sacrifice on Day 7 and Day 2 if you would like to read more on the subject.  Have we offered our bodies as living sacrifices to Jesus?  Paul writes that offering our bodies as living sacrifices is a spiritual act of worship – and we desire to worship God in spirit and truth don’t we?

Paul goes on to write – Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.  The pattern of the world – as I see it – dealing with our prayer/fast – is all about self pleasure – pleasing self and seeking our will at all costs – even our physical and spiritual health.  When we take time to pray and fast – we are taking time and focusing on God and on His kingdom. The world wants us to focus on self and our desires and we need to focus on Jesus and His will.  We are not to conform to the world but rather be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  The church should be about helping to lead people toward a transformed life after the life of Christ.  My prayer is that our prayer/fast will help us to focus more on Jesus!

Just something to think about today as you go on your way.

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