40 Day Daniel Fast Day 4

Romans 12:1a
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

Do you remember the day of salvation? Wasn’t it special? If you were like me, you were excited and ready to do all you could do for the one who saved you. But we are quickly greeted by our fleshly body; you see, our soul was saved, but our body is on the struggle bus. We at times forget who this body belongs to, it belongs to the Lord, but He isn’t just going to take it from us, not against our will. So Paul tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, present your body!

Why would he say to present our bodies? Well, our bodies are all we have to offer. I don’t know about you, but I live in my body, and I am sure you do as well. This is where all of our emotions reside; our mind comes up with all of those thoughts of what to do and what to tell our body what to do; it’s where our thoughts are developed and how we come up with views and preferences. Our body is where we come up with plans for it, whether we are going to do things with it, whether it’s in His plan for us or not! You see, the body represents the whole being of us! It’s everything to us and yet everything to offer.

You see, Paul understands, if the body is offered, God will get all of us, God will get all of our free time, all of our pleasures, all of our behaviors, those attitudes, those plans. He gets it all! This is just it; God wants all of us, not a part of us. So Paul says, “present your bodies” Why? Because our bodies are unredeemed, they must be consistently yielded and presented to the Lord. He says in Romans 6, do not present the members of your body to sin, don’t use them as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God. If we offer our bodies to the Lord and allow God to control our bodies, we can expect to have our bodies used as instruments of righteousness.

Challenge:
When are you struggling the most to present your bodies to the Lord? What scriptures are you reading to attack the thought? Who are you contacting to hold you accountable?

Read:
1 Corinthians 6:19
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Romans 6:12-14

Pray:
Father, we thank you for our great salvation, thank you for the power you give us all to overcome the desires of the flesh. We present our bodies to you today, understanding that we can not prevent the remnants of sin from persisting in our mortal bodies, but we can keep that sin from ruling our bodies with Your power. Thank you for giving us a new nature and dwelling inside us. Sin doesn’t have dominion over us! We embrace Your strength today! In Jesus’ name, Amen!