Then, God says, “Go, do this.”

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

When we read the phrase, “offer your bodies,” all of a sudden it gets practical, doesn’t it?

Some of us would rather keep it cerebral. We want to sit in our seats and pray, “God, I am yours.”

Then, God says, “Go, do this.”

Our response is to pray, “Oh yes, God. I want you to know that I see the need. I will pray that something will get done.” We say, “Here am I, Lord, send Aaron.”

Right? We see the need. We know somebody ought to do something.

I can’t count the number of times as a pastor people have come to me to say, “I think our church ought to fund this thing.”

My question is, “How much are you putting in?”

The person sincerely believes the project needs funding, but what they mean is that the church, those other people, should give some of their money.

I’m great at this, too. I see the need and I think of the right person to pay for the project.

God says to me, “Look, the fields are white unto harvest. What are you going to do about it?”

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9:38

Do you remember this story? The very next thing that happens in the text is that Jesus sends forth the disciples. This is a pattern in Scripture and in life.

God speaks to our hearts, enlarges our vision and sensitizes us to the needs around us. We see the need and we say, “Oh God, this is a tremendous need. Please, do something.”

God says, “I’m going to use you.”

That’s how I ended up doing what I now do. When I was a teenager, God broke my heart with the needs of children who come from shattered situations. As I wept and cried out to God and said, “God you have to do something,” God spoke to my heart and said, “I will do something, but I want to use you.”

I’m glad God doesn’t ask us to carry all the water ourselves, but we can’t stay distant and uninvolved. We have to offer our body as a living sacrifice. It gets physical. We have to get personally involved. We can’t just think about it. We can’t just pray about it. We have to do whatever God requires. Obedience to Christ impacts our approach to everything we do.