Just Say No

Romans 12:1 “Brothers and sisters, God has shown you His mercy. So I am asking you to offer up your bodies to Him while you are still alive. Your bodies are a holy sacrifice that is pleasing to God. When you offer your bodies to God, you are worshiping Him in the right way.” ~NIRV

Going to church every Sunday and reading the Word of God every now and then is a scratch at the surface in being a Christian. Although these are needed and required, there is another step to be taken toward becoming more godly in our walk in Christ. We have to embrace and practice living our lives in complete ‘sacrifice’, in order to begin the process of allowing God to fully use us on our journey. Let us take the steps to get to that point in our lives.

One way to discipline ourselves in the practice of sacrifice is learning how to train ourselves in ignoring the desires of our flesh. A great way to accomplish this is by adapting a healthy lifestyle. But hold on a second. Instead of looking at this way of accomplishment as a ‘diet’, let us look at it like we are training ourselves to say ‘NO’ to the crying and wants of the flesh. Crying and wants we do not need. For instance, if our doctor tells us to cut back on sugar, we train ourselves and allow the spirit inside of us to help us say ‘NO’ to some of those sugary foods. And we adapt some other healthy replacements of nurishment for our bodies to get its daily supplements.

If our doctor tells us that we need to lose some weight so that we can maintain a healthier lifestyle, then we learn to say ‘NO’ to lying around at the house all day everyday. We learn to say ‘NO’ when eating in between meals that we do not need. We can find things to do that exercise our bodies and minds. We can try reading more books and watching less television or even eliminating that 'scroll time' on our phones when it comes to social media. We can also keep ourselves busy by planting a garden and growing healthier foods for our bodies. This will allow us to stay busy tending to our gardens and less lying around the house. Just saying ‘NO’ to idle time and ‘YES’ to mobility in our lives.

When we have learned to discipline ourselves in making our bodies better, we can look back and become aware that we have ‘sacrificed’ things we like. We have sacrificed lazy time on the couch turning ‘me time’ into ‘family time’. Because of that we become healthier and stronger not only for our body’s sake, but for the sake of our Christian walk as well. With this new found strength we can carry on our sacrifice as we journey in the world. We can ‘sacrifice’ our need to fight back when someone insults us. We can say ‘NO’ to participation in a confrontation. And we can say ‘YES’ when it comes to forgiving our brothers and sisters.

“...God has shown you His mercy…” In return and in gratitude we must learn and live sacrifice. Beginning with our own discipline and sacrifice with our flesh, we must train ourselves to be godly. Once we have conquered our flesh, God will use us to conquer the trials of this world. May God continue to bless you as you journey in Jesus’ name. 

Amen