“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (NLT) — Romans 12:1-2
When we give our hearts to God through Jesus Christ, the Bible says that we become a new person. It’s not a physical change but a spiritual one. We possess a new spiritual life. When we repent and give our hearts to Jesus, He then becomes the center of our lives from that time forward. But what motivates us to follow this course in our life when before Christ, we did anything we wanted? And how do we yield ourselves to a different lifestyle, a different way of thinking. The apostle Paul helps us answer these questions in his letter to the church in Rome. Perhaps this illustration will help us:
Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ’71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a “genius mind” when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team. Roger later said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.” 1
Well, that’s what God wants from us. He wants to call the plays and He wants us to carry them out. Our pride says we can do it without anyone’s help, but true humility says we need God’s help on every single down. That’s the formula for a winning team. When we “present our bodies” as a “living and holy sacrifice we present ourselves completely to God (our heart, our mind, our body and our soul) in acceptable service and obedience to Him. We become a non-conformist to the culture around us. That is, we learn to do things God’s way and not the world’s way. We fall out of love with the world and deeply in love with God. When that happens, then and only then, can God transform us into the likeness of Christ. That’s the goal and God will get us there if we let Him. Maranatha!
Pastor Don
