Present Your Bodies

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

I am still grappling with what it really means to present my body.... I can't see that it would mean taking my physical body and somehow putting onto a physical altar or some other place to become some sort of sacrifice. But at the same time I also don't believe that it is so symbolic as to not involve my physical body at all. I realize there are plenty of people around who would be eager to offer emphatic answers to this question, but I need to mull it over myself and listen to what God wants to reveal to my own heart concerning this text and what His real desire is for my life.

I am struck with how much this reference to my body lies in the realm of the external when so much of Paul's message has been meant to shift my focus to the more important internals in contrast to the strong external orientation of false religion. Conformity is primarily an externally imposed system of religion that is not effective for a true relationship with God that is so necessary. But I hear Paul saying here that neither are the externals to be ignored or their effects on our life discounted more than what is necessary.

What I do see here is an instruction to release my grip over my life that is so easy for me to cling to and turn over my externals to the authority of God instead of trying to remain in control. It is recognizing the many ways in which I am resisting God at multiple levels in my life, both internal and external, both physically and spiritually. It is in following this path that I am able to reveal (prove) what the real will of God is for my life.

But what else does it mean to present my body as a living sacrifice? I'm not sure I am going to come up with a lot of answers alone. I have been thinking about some related issues to this since I woke up this morning and when I opened my Bible to see what God has for me today I found that He is continuing to address the same issue that I have already written about. What does it look like to let go of my resistance? How do I discover the good, acceptable and perfect will of God in my own life and go about living within that will?

Part of what He is telling me is that it will not happen alone. And part of it is a complete reworking and rewiring of my mind (primarily my left brain for part of this work) so that my mind and heart are allowed to function in proper proportion like they have never done up to this point. As my mind is renewed and my thinking is radically changed (much more than I can even yet imagine) I will experience more and more the transformation that is a natural result of this experience. In the process – or is it preceding this process – I need to do whatever this means – present my body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.

I just noticed something as I wrote those words and looked again at the text. I don't know how significant it is, but the text does not seem to say that the sacrifice is offered necessarily to God. It just says that it is offered and that it is acceptable to God and that this action or decision is a spiritual service of real worship.

Does that imply that maybe my body might be offered in different ways or for various uses that would prove to be acceptable to God and be an act of spiritual worship? That certainly leaves a lot of room for thought and exploration. But whatever that means or what it might look like, it will be in the context of renewal of the mind and transformation as opposed to being conformed to a set of rules or to external pressures and expectations from around me, even if those are in an approved system of religion like a church.

Another element I see in this passage that likely relates to presenting my body is the warning in verse 3 to not think too highly of myself more than I ought. I am to have a healthy self-perception based solidly on the measure of faith that has been gifted to me by God. Even more significantly, in the following verses I have to come to perceive what it means to present my body as a sacrifice in light of the fact that I am just a small member with interactions that need to be made with the much larger body of Christ on earth. Included in that is my need to receive what I need to receive through that body as well as contribute. I need to find my part and function in the much bigger picture of God's master design for the assembling of all the parts of His body as it grows up into the full maturity of the Head.

Father, open my eyes, my heart and my mind to perceive whatever it is I need to perceive so that I will be a better fitting part of Your body. Help me to exercise the measure of faith that You have already alloted to me and teach me how to cooperate with You to strengthen and grow my faith in You. I want to be a more usable member in Your body than I am now and know much better what Your will is for me. Fill me with Your Spirit and cause me to walk in Your ways and think Your thoughts and share Your desires. Let me reflect Your glory and Your goodness today for Your reputation's sake.

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