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“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 NIV11-GKE)

If you could take an honest test and be willing to let the Holy Spirit examine you, would you do it? This is the essence of true worship, the willingness to be honest and open before our God, to allow him to examine us and reveal our true selves to us.

Let me start from the fundamental premise that we are sinners saved by grace and are not perfect; although He has placed eternity in our hearts, we still struggle to come clean before the Lord, who sees everything and knows us better than we do.

Yet this very honesty test is no other than to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are not very comfortable with sacrifices because it is costly and it will demand everything from us. Just imagine how hard it was for Abraham to place the elected son onto the flat rock, ready to be sacrificed. This, by the way, was God’s idea of testing Abraham’s faith.

Paul makes this point so clearly, and he does not give us an alternative; it is all or nothing. He urges us to come to the altar in order to worship him in view of God’s mercy, which far outweighs ours.

How do I see this? This is very much what worship is all about. It is not a Sunday gathering and signing of more than three songs, with a smoke machine and people dancing. That is only one small expression of worship. This is coming to the Lord as honestly as we can be, and let him know that we are there at the altar ready to be sacrificed for the sake of his Son and his kingdom here on earth. In truth, once we come to him, he should reign in us, and we should allow his reign to rule our hearts. What is the price? To be like his Son, Holy and Pleasing to him.

Paul once said that he was like an open book. David, in Psalm 139, points out that we cannot escape from his presence. In Revelation, Jesus is the Lamb who has seven horns and eyes.

Let us not fool ourselves into thinking he does not see us.