Presenting Yourself

Today let’s take a look at Romans 12 from the standpoint of prayer.

We use this scripture a lot to say that we need to renew our mind but does it say anything about prayer?

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1–2, NKJV)

The first part of this passage is a call to prayer

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul says to us, "I am begging you, imploring you, requesting you...to do what?..."

Present your life - it says body but we know that in the original language it means more than just your body. In fact if you are only presenting your body and not your heart and soul, you are only giving God part of yourself.

God wants all of you and not just your body.

Prayer is communicating with God. It is connecting with God.

And since God gave you a spirit, sol and body it is our reasonable act of worship to present ourselves to Him.

This is the ultimate act of prayer - it is a consecration and dedication of your life to Him.

The implied reason to this is, after we have given ourselves to Him then we are to renew our minds.

What does that mean?

We need to line our thinking up with His thinking.

Where do you find out how He thinks? By spending time in His word. His heart and mind is revealed through His word.

As we spend time in His world our minds are renewed so that we do not conform to the ways and patterns of this world’s system.

We are being transformed by His word by putting on the mind of Christ by meditating His word.

When we meditate His word we think like Him…so that we can then act like Him.

This is the WHY

Why do we pray? Why do we lay our lives down at His feet? Why do we renew our minds with His word?

So that we can - DO HIS WILL

Doing His will is proving that it indeed is GOOD, ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT.

Everything in our lives that we do spiritually leads to doing the will of God

And this is the fulfillment of what Jesus told us to pray that, HIS WILL BE DONE on earth.

We personalize this and say - God’s will BE DONE in my life here on earth as it is in heaven.

I choose today:
            To lay down my life and present it to you.
            To renew my mind with Your word so that I know Your will and think like You.
            To prove Your will in my life by doing Your word and following the Holy Spirit.