“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  (Romans 12:1)

Do I find myself lacking motivation for the Christian life?  Am I simply slogging through out of habit?  Am I feeling enslaved to sin, whether it’s laziness or lust or loose lips?  Or, instead, am I increasingly finding an inner drive and power that cannot be stopped or quenched?

This is Paul’s challenge here in Romans 12:1.  In view of God’s mercy– in view of His astonishing, amazing kindness in the face of our relentless and dominating stubbornness and fist-shaking rebellion– present your body to Him.  Present your whole being to God as the only logical, reasonable thing you can do.

How do we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices?  Go back to chapter 6.  “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”  (Rom 6:13)

Daily present your body to God as His tool for righteousness.  You belong to Him and to Him alone.  Don’t give yourself– i.e., “don’t present yourself”–  to enslaving passions like you did before.  Rather, live in the freedom and power of the gospel.  The old hymn, “Take my Life” expresses this daily offering well: “Take my life…my moments and days…my hands…my feet…my voice…my lips…my silver and gold…my intellect…my will…my heart…my love…take myself…it shall be no longer mine.”

Get down on your knees the first thing each morning and present yourself to God as His instrument for righteousness.  Your life belongs to Him, not to yourself, since He brought you back from the dead.  Since He showed you astonishing mercy.   2 Cor 5:15 says that “He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”

May the greatest motivation of my life be the mercy of God!  Forsake presenting yourself to sin today.  Instead, present every part of your being to Him!