Lent Day 34: We Are an Offering (I)

Today begins the 7-day stretch leading to Holy Week, during which we commemorate the ultimate Lenten offering -- Christ offers Himself as a sacrificial lamb to take away the sin of the whole world. 

Pondering a beautiful passage found in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, stating . . .

"Follow God's example, therefore, 

as dearly loved children 

and walk in the way of love, 

just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us 

as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Ephesians 5:1-2, NIV

. . . I have been asking myself what it might mean for you and me to be an offering to the Lord.

As the Lord has done time and time again in my life, He gave me a song. And so, for the seven days leading to Holy Week, let us -- you and I -- mine the beautiful treasures that are found in it.

In 1984, a man by the name of Dwight Liles wrote a song entitled We Are an Offering. Marked by an irregular meter and sonorous harmonies, this chorus is to be sung freely—almost in an improvisatory manner, giving the impression that the worshipper is coming up with the words as they come out of his/her mouth. 

From the first time I heard it, it has marked my life and has come to echo in my heart the Lenten thought found in Romans 12:1,

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, 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."

Just as priests present fragrant offerings to the Father, you and I are called to offer the members of our earthly bodies as a pleasing aroma to Jesus—being mindful to love God and serve people with our consecrated minds, eyes, ears, lips, shoulders, hearts, arms, hips, hands, legs, knees, and feet—to the glory of the Father.

The above exhortation seems to suggest that the spiritual act of worshipping the Father is linked to a visceral component. It is not to be a compartmentalized activity wherein the body is partially engaged on selected Sundays from 10:45 a.m. until noon. Indeed, that would be a terribly cheap response to a most compassionate and caring God. The verse suggests that authentic worship is responding in love through our daily commitment to keep our bodies spiritually, morally, and physically fit to serve God and others.

How might we achieve such holistic fitness? 

Through prayer, we can go to the Word of God and implore the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts. Under His conviction, we grow to realize that, though our lips readily profess our love to and for God, unless our behavior is God-honoring and authentic, our worship will simply be unfit—flabby and chubby. We learn to wonder whether or not our bodies are truly living sacrifices offered on God's altar every day. We begin to consider whether our behavior is guided by self-gratification or God's honor.

So, as we pray, let us humbly ask the Father to guide us to imitate Christ in offering our bodies as sacrifices to God on behalf of others. Like women willing to let babies invade their womb, fathers who work tirelessly to provide for their families, singers who voice out the cries of anguish of an entire country after a national tragedy, bodyguards who take bullets to save the lives of others, missionaries who willingly go hungry so that others could eat their share, may all our offerings be pleasing acts of love to God!