Offering

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1 TM

When I grew up, the only thing I knew of an offering was when the church passed a plate around to collect money. Tithing our money is not the only form of offering though. In the Old Testament, they used to sacrifice animals as an offering to God, but what Paul is saying here is that God wants us to offer ourselves, and not animals, as “living” sacrifices.

Have you ever thought of your daily activities as an offering to God? Your work, hanging out with friends, loving your family, cooking, eating, sleeping, reading all as an offering to God?

So it’s not just your money or even ‘sacrificing’ a couple hours on Sunday; our daily lives can be an offering to God. And why not? It was Jesus, Himself, who changed the whole paradigm when He offered His very life as a sacrifice, once and for all, to atone for our sins (praise the Lord)!

Take a minute to think through what it would look like to offer different parts of you day to God. Maybe thinking through the entire day is too much, so start with your very next activity. Even if it’s simply driving to work, think about how you can offer that time to Him. This is the way we worship Him, not just by singing songs on Sunday, but by giving Him our lives.