The living sacrifice

‘TO PIVOT’ has become a catch phrase adopted mainly by entrepreneurs to explain how they respond to the recent far-reaching changes caused by circumstances (or a virus) beyond their control. The narrative was “COVID is what it is, therefore…” As Christians we also have need to pivot, which is why Romans 12 starts with that same word - “therefore”.

Whenever we see the word “therefore” in the Bible, we must read prior to see what it’s there for. It will always point back to something that was said earlier.

The Apostle Paul is pointing back to everything he said in Romans 1 to 11, which speaks of how God created and designed us for relationship with Him, but we rebelled against His purposes. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Because of rebellion and sin, we don’t deserve relationship with God but “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Romans 5:8 (NIV). Paul has in mind all that Jesus has done for us in being crucified to death, bearing the punishment we deserve and in being raised from the dead. In the incarnate Son of God, we have total forgiveness and reconciliation with God the Father.

God offers us something we don’t deserve (relationship with Him and eternal life), instead of what we do deserve (eternal separation from Him and eternal punishment). The reason we should be living sacrifices is to justifiably highlight the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.

But putting Jesus on display in our lives requires a transformation from our old way of life to the new one. This is done by a “renewing of the mind” which involves changing what we put into our minds.

Statistics show that the average American spends 1,000 hours a year watching television. Over a 65-year period, they would have spent 7.5 years of that, staring at a screen. In contrast, if we go to church every Sunday of our life for 65 years, we would have spent a total of eight months receiving spiritual training. Eight months compared to 7.5 years is a big difference.

We, therefore, must be deliberate about what goes into our minds because it determines what we believe. What are we meditating on? What is it that we feed our minds when we are alone and with others?

As Christians, there are many avenues for the Word of God to get into our system.Various weekday Bible study groups in our local churches, online sermon videos or podcasts by Christian leaders, worship album CDs for your car by local gospel artistes and many other tools are available to the modern believer. My own YouTube channel @dwightafletcher, has short encouraging videos for helping you to walk out your faith practically and successfully.

A renewing of the mind involves changing the way we think and as our minds are renewed, we must put in God’s Words and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as He changes our beliefs and thoughts and this in turn adjusts our feelings. Our feelings inform our actions and actions determine our results. “…let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” Ephesians 4:23-24 (NLT)

The original Greek word for ‘renew’ indicates that it’s not a one-time renewal, but an on-going process - something we do every day. We are to be a living sacrifice – putting to death the old attitudes and beliefs and being deliberate about aligning our mindset with God’s mind.