Clay in the Hands

In my prayer and reading time this morning I got all the way through one verse in Romans (now you can see why it is taking me multiple years to make it through the book – I’m up to chapter 12 now).

Romans 12:1 tells us that we should consider God’s mercy – that undeserved gift we have been given.  Upon considering this gift – we should act appropriately by sacrificing ourselves to God.  This is a verse we all know.  But there is something here I want us to think about today.

Paul specifically ties some things together for us here that makes all the difference for those of us who call ourselves Christ followers.  He says that in light of God’s mercy shown to us, we should offer our bodies (our physical beings, the flesh and blood you and me) as a living sacrifice – not some animal we sacrifice by killing on an altar but our living, breathing selves.

Now don’t miss this part – this is to be our reasonable, spiritual act of worship.  I know that different translations use either reasonable or spiritual here and normally I would not point it out but I want us to think about this specifically today.  Not to be a Greek geek, but the original word here is logikein – which can be translated as reasonable or spiritual.  But the point is this, which ever way you choose to translate it, the word carries the idea of our inner being – our spirit.

So what Paul is telling us is that our spiritual, intellectual worship is hollow without our physical commitment as well.  So often, we see our devotion time or sitting in a worship service and singing a few songs and listening to teaching as being where we truly worship.

But Paul is specific – spiritual worship takes physical action!  The Way is not for sitting – it is for getting knee deep in the messiness of life – in the time-consuming awkwardness of demanding relationships.  That is worship!

How will you worship today?