Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer 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.
This is one of the scriptures that helps us identify what living "A Lifestyle of Worship" is all about. There is more to Worship than just singing songs at Church on the weekend. Worship is a Lifestyle that we must live day-in and day-out. The Worship that we offer God at Church should be a reflection of what we are living out during the week. So how do we do that? In Romans 12:1-2 we see two things that God says is our spiritual act of worship:
- Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice
- Do not conform to the ways of this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind
Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is simply us saying, "God, I give you full control of EVERY area in my life." The word "Body" in this scripture is in reference to anything that is related to you personally: your thoughts, actions, emotions, and etc...
Not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds can seem complicated when we read this part of the verse. What this is saying is that we are not to let the world tell us how we should live our life (what we eat and drink, how we talk, what we drive, where we live, what we do with our time, our appearance, and etc...). We should instead worship God in song, read the Bible, pray, and listen so that we can hear from Heaven to know how we are to live our life. It is so easy to not live this way. We are constantly bombarded by all different types of media that constantly, over time, begins to change what our viewpoint is on how we perceive something and/or how we choose to live our life.
By choosing to do these two things we will live "A Lifestyle of Worship" everyday. Hopefully through this blog we can learn and grow together in "A Lifestyle of Worship".
In closing, I will say the same thing to each of you that Paul said to the Roman Christians:
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
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