“To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” -Mark 12:33

In the time of Jesus, everything people sacrificed in Judaism was a dead sacrifice – a dead goat, a dead sheep, etc. But once Jesus, himself, was sacrificed for our sins, it became imperative that Christ followers become living sacrifices in worship to God.

Christians, then and now, are told through scripture to “build your life in response to his love” by making everything you do, every part of your body, be worship.

You no longer say that you go to church, and only to church, to worship. We do that, but when we go to the factory, or work in our gardens, or are in traffic on our way to the office, or when taking care of children or grandchildren, all those are acts of worship. When I sing in the choir, it is worship. When I clean my house, it’s worship. When I give to my neighbor, when I love those around me, everything I do is in response to this simple yet crucial idea that God loves me. Not because of what I do, what I have, or what people say about me, but just by faith that he loves me and wants me.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I love you with all my heart. I build my life in response to your love. Through everything I do, every part of my body, may I worship you. Amen.

REFLECTION: How many different ways do you worship God?