Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform 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. (Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
The concept of sacrifice is obscure to most people in western cultures, by choice. In a world filled with mystical images and animation, how could it be otherwise?
More and more people have a hard time distinguishing between the imaginary and real. Self image (selfies anyone?), along with physical power and beauty, is idealized and idolized. We want to escape pain, risk, and loss of any kind, not embrace such things.
In a sense, we want to be worshipped, not worship someone else.
It's no wonder that offering our bodies as a living sacrifice doesn't appeal to most people. But this exhortation points us (believers) back to Jesus, to remember His life poured out so we could have and know true life.
How can we ...offer our bodies as a living sacrifice? By swimming upstream against the flow of popular culture, not conform to it.
It's a choice—an act of free will—to choose what is pleasing to God, rather than pleasing ourselves or others. Choosing to be transformed by God's truth and Spirit, rather than conforming to what everyone else and the culture around us chooses. This results in true and proper worship of God.
Want to know God's will for your life? Consider God's great mercy, then surrender your whole life to Him. This is what He chooses for those who follow His Son. ©Word-Strong_2016