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Key Bible Verse: I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. (Romans 12:1, CEV) Dig Deeper: Romans 12:2

What does offering your body to God look like in our everyday lives?

Maybe it's when you sit down at your computer and there's a message from "Desperate Debbie" with the subject line "XXX: Click here!" You close your eyes and pray, "Lord, everything in me wants to check this out. I pray for your help. Lord, my eyes are only for you." Then, by faith, you click "delete." Your eyes have become a living sacrifice.

It's when you turn on the radio to listen to music that tells you to go smoke something, drink something, have sex with somebody, curse somebody, and then you pray, "Lord, I like the song. Everything within me wants to listen. Help me, Lord. By faith, I'm not going to listen. Jesus, my ears are only for you." Then you change stations. Your ears are a living sacrifice.

Maybe you're with friends and you have a dirty joke that if shared will make you the flavor of the moment. Yet instead of telling the joke, you pray, "Lord God, I confess I want the attention. I want the popularity. Help me, Lord, to obey you. Jesus, my lips are for you alone." Then, by faith, you bite your tongue. In that moment your lips have become a living sacrifice.

—Jarrod Jones in The Backward Life

My Response: How might I apply Jarrod's devotional to something I struggle with or to a moral choice I'm faced with on a regular basis?

Thought to Apply: The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar.—Rick Warren (pastor, writer)

Adapted from The Backward Life (Revell, 2006) by permission; All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

Lord, it's easy to say I follow you; it's much harder to show it by the way I live; help me, with your empowering Spirit, to choose daily to live in obedience to your calling.

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