"...offer yourselves to God..."

Good Morning,

Romans 6:13 (NIV)
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:13 (AMP)
Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

Today we read, in this verse, what is probably one of the main problems, if not THE major problem, with the world in which we live. That would be, I believe, that too many of us continue in "offering or yielding" our bodies to sin and wickedness. It seems to me that everywhere we look today we see that mankind has learned pretty much nothing about what happens to civilizations that give in to the pleasures of the body...at the cost of giving ourselves over to God. We might say, "Oh, certainly not ME! I don't do that!" But I would ask that we take a look deep down inside ourselves to really see and comprehend if, indeed, we really ARE giving ourselves over to physical pleasures, instead of devoting ourselves to the things of God.

Well, you might say that not ALL of us, or even a majority of us, are looking at things we shouldn't on the internet, in magazines, at the movies, or even on television. You know what? That's true. Some of us, however, ARE giving ourselves over to those things and offering our bodies to sin in sexual ways. But, that's not the only way we give ourselves to wickedness. It's just the easiest to recognize. So, we kind of focus in on that and think it's the only thing we've got to concentrate on and defeat. Well, I tend to differ with that opinion.

How's your attitude toward work and wealth? How do you feel about "creature comforts" that you've accumulated...or are seeking to accumulate? How much time do you spend rooting for your favorite sports team? Well, you know, the list of things that take us away from yielding ourselves to God can go on...and on...and on. Can't it? Unfortunately, we "offer the parts of your (our) body (bodies) to sin" in many ways. Not all of them have to do with infidelity or sexual sin. No, many of the things that we yield our bodies to are things that don't really seem to BE sin...or sinful.

But, I would contend that ANYTHING that takes our focus off of God (in an inordinate way) and anything that keeps us from offering all of the parts of our bodies to Him as "instruments of righteousness" can be, and often are, sin...can be sinful.

God has offered US His free gift that Paul writes here as, "...been brought from death to life...", God's plan of salvation and eternal life by accepting Jesus as Savior. Can we do any less than offer ourselves, our bodies, minds, souls, and our very beings back to HIM, as "instruments of righteousness" that we read here? Don't we think enough of God's gift of eternal life in heaven that we can give Him our physical bodies during this short time here on this earth? Evidently, that answer...sadly...is often "No," to that question. No, we don't. We still go after physical pleasure and physical enjoyment and physical comforts to the detriment of seeking to go after the things of God and offering ourselves over to His righteousness.

Now, lest some get the wrong idea here, let me say simply that it's NOT wrong, or sinful, to seek some of what I've written here...IN MODERATION! As long as our priorities are straight and we're headed in God's directions in our lives, then it's find to work to obtain things that bring us some physical pleasure and enjoyment. When it becomes sin and sinful is when it's to the detriment of God's plan; when it causes us to deviate from what we should be doing for God. What brings us down to the "pagan's" level is when we go after physical pleasures first, and put God on the back burner, so to speak.

Simply put, we need to see what we've been striving for, wanting, and seeking the most in our lives. Are we spending 99% of our time and effort on "sin and wickedness" as we live on this planet? Or, are we offering ourselves to God with more of our time and our efforts?

I hope we all find the answer to this and answer we want to see.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David