Romans 12:1
Today, in Paul’s letter to the Church of Rome we find the gift that we are called to give daily unto the Lord… As a child of the most high we are directed to be a living sacrifice unto the Lord…In this dying world we are to be examples of God’s faithfulness, love and compassion… Notice Paul says “a living sacrifice”, we are not called to be mute (dead) in this perishing world as many are right now, but we are to be witnesses to the grace of God… Paul starts this verse off by saying, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” and ends by saying, “which is your reasonable service…” Mercy is forgiveness, sympathy, kindness and compassion toward another; when you take time to think about your life, I am pretty sure that it is filled with God’s mercy… Paul is saying that we should be willing without thought to be a living sacrifice to the Lord because He has been a willing sacrifice unto us… His mercy is what Paul pleads through today, the mercy of God is what sustains you and keeps you from your proper punishment… The mercy of God is what has given you life and life more abundantly... God not only sent His son, but He has given us His spirit to lead, guide and direct our paths… To beseech is to beg, ask or request… Paul is requesting for us to look at our lives today and notice how much mercy God has bestowed; when you take that into account he asks that we give our lives back to Him… The fact that you have the ability to wake up in the morning, the fact that you are clothed in your right mind, the fact that you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and a job to go to is fruit of God’s mercy…Think about where we would stand if we actually suffered the full blunt of the consequences of our actions; some of us would be a complete mess, some would be a lost cause and some would not even have warm blood flowing within their veins… Day after day, God has shown mercy unto His creation, Jeremiah said it best, “It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22, 23). It is by the Lords hand that you live; it is by the Lord’s faithfulness that hell doesn’t have to be your home; it is by His compassion that you are even able to read this email… Don’t take God’s mercy for granted, to belittle all that He has done and continues to do in your life, don’t allow your circumstances to overshadow the path that God has already paved up to this point and will pave in your future… When you think about what God has already done, you realize how reasonable this request is that Paul is making today… Our desire as a child of God is to be a living sacrifice unto the Lord, holy and acceptable… Notice we talk about a living sacrifice, usually when something is sacrificed it is killed, but Paul says that we are to live… This speaks directly to killing the desires of the flesh so that we can live according to the will of God… This is not something that happens over night, this is something that is produced over time and must be done daily… To be holy is to be pure, we are to strive to avoid situations that will cause us to be imperfect, this could be a bad habit you engage in, a relationship that kills your spiritual growth or even words that you speak in vain thoughts… Paul understood this all to well, he labeled himself as the “chief sinner” and realized the path that he was on which was leading to hell… Paul understood that Christ lifted him out of the miry clay and gave him a chance to inherit Eternal Life… Paul went on (after his Damascus road experience) to expresses his love and gratitude toward the Lord by presenting his body as a living sacrifice… Paul wrote to the church of Philippi about sacrifice when he said, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…” He told Timothy,“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…” He realized that God has all power in the palm of His hand and that His love has saved us from sin; when we realize this great mercy, we will understand that sacrificing our desires to live for the Lord truly is a “reasonable service…”
BE BLESSED!!!
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