24TH JANUARY
Romans 12:1
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
To present your body as a living sacrifice means to choose purity everyday!
“And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar” (Leviticus 6:10).
God is detail-oriented isn’t he? He tells the priests what to wear for a specific task. Why did it have to be linen? Why couldn’t it have been wool? Linen was known to be a more proper emblem of purity than wool, as it is more easily cleansed, and washed whiter than wool.
Notice that God asked the priests to clothe themselves in a material that represented purity. In order to present our bodies as living sacrifices, we must always be available to do God’s work, we must be passionate and zealous about God’s work day after day after day and we must also clothe ourselves with purity.
Clothing ourselves with purity means choosing purity in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions, in our motives. We must choose to be like Jesus above all else. Above the temptation to lie, to be comfortable, to compromise, to fit in with the world.
Something interesting to notice here is that the linen clothing was only seen by the priests and God. The linen clothing of purity is a matter of the heart and mind. Most of the time your purity can only be seen by God and by you!
MAKE IT PERSONAL
Is there anything in your life that encourages impurity in your heart and mind? Do you plan to do something about it?