Sun 17 Sep

If someone gave you your life back what would be your response to the giver? If someone donated their heart so you could live what would be your response? God gave the life of His Son, Jesus Christ, so we could live. If God in His mercy toward you gave you something you did not deserve, what would be your response to Him? Paul, in the first 11 chapters of Romans has spoken of the mercy and grace of God. Now in view of God's mercy toward us what ought our response be to God? we are not left wondering what the response ought to be. "In view of God's mercy offer your bodies as living sacrifices." What then does that mean to offer our bodies as living sacrifices in response to God's mercy? If you sacrifice something then it no longer has any right to what it might want to do. The sacrifice has been placed on the altar. It cannot do anything else. It is entirely at the mercy of the one whose altar you are on. In other words, you no longer have any right to do what you want to do. A living sacrifice places themselves at the mercy of God. They humble themselves before God seeking to do what God wants them to do. So when we respond to God, we are essentially saying, "Lord! Take me and use me as you see in your service." That might sound easy, but when you have your own desires and dreams, you want to do, what you want to do. Yet our response to God ought to be one of repentance and asking God to take and use us. As we journey through the remaining five chapters, we discover how God wants us to live and respond in view of His mercy.