Tonight at Community Group, we discussed "Obedience to Christ". The first verse we looked at was
Romans 12:1
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."
This verse in particular, has come up in my life a lot throughout the past few years and every time I read it, I always interpret "offer your bodies as living sacrifices" as we are called to treat our bodies well and not abuse them. This is so very true since the Holy Spirit lives in us once we accept Christ into our lives. But, tonight I learned that not only is this verse talking about our bodies as physical objects but also our mind, heart, and soul. Our mind, heart, and soul are also a part of our body, although not physically. One girl put it very nicely when she said, "We need a clean heart, pure mind, and a healthy soul." Yes, keeping our physical bodies healthy is something we are supposed to do but we are also called to have "a clean heart, pure mind, and a healthy soul". This means that we need to focus our hearts and minds on Christ and anything that glorifies Him. When we put things in our minds and focus on un-Godly things that we let fill our heart, we can easily drift away from God and it makes it easier for us to disobey Him. We are called, as God's children, to obey and respect Him and through that, we worship him.
We went on to look at John 14:21,
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
We obey God, not because we are obligated to, but out of pure love for Him and what He has done for us!
