“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”–Romans 12:1

Pastor Jack Graham said,”It seems like more and more today, I meet people who have a slot-machine religion. You know what I mean… they think of serving God like putting a quarter in a slot machine. So they volunteer at church, pull the lever, and wait and see if God will pay out.

Now you may hear that and think, “That’s preposterous! How could anyone believe something like that?!” But the truth is there’s an inkling of that feeling in all of us. It may not be a blatant as the example above, but we all have that little voice that comes from our flesh that says, “God is really lucky to have me on His team.”

But the Bible gives us a very different paradigm of thinking when it comes to serving God. Instead of elevating ourselves and thinking we’re really helping God out, the reality is that serving God is a privilege for those of us who are in Jesus Christ.

Give cheerfully. Serve humbly. You have nothing to offer God except what He’s already given you – a holy life. Exercise your divine privilege of serving Him every day and thank God for the wonderful blessing of being able to live for His glory!”

Considering all that God has done for us, it is indeed reasonable and a privilege that we should do as He commands. And we should do it without hesitation, reservation, question, or complaint. We should give our all to Him who gave heaven’s best for those who deserve nothing. If we are grateful for His grace we will.

Take the…sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God– Ephesians 6:17

Notice that the Bible, God’s Word, is called the sword “of the Spirit.” Not only is it a weapon, but it is a weapon forged by God himself.

This is why God’s Word is so powerful. Satan only retreats before the Almighty; he has never yet successfully advanced against the point of this sword. The devil is no match for the truth of God. His only hope is to convince you to lower your weapon.

But have you experienced its power to deliver from sin — worry, fear, envy, lust? Although our fallen minds can rationalize any sin, the Word of God cuts through our excuses without bending and delivers us from sin’s deceit and destruction.

And the Bible not only fends off attack, it delivers blows. God’s Word condemns sin, instructs us how to live, matures our foolish hearts, and reveals false motivations. The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon that we are given in this spiritual warfare, but it is abundantly sufficient.

However, it is not a superstitious and mere presence of God’s Word that has overcoming power — it is not any help at all if it sits idle and untouched on your bedside table. It is the individual passages of Scripture—read, studied, memorized, and meditated upon—which parries the approaches of Satan.

When we wield God’s Word knowledgeably and with faith, we will find this fencing practice quickly yields astonishing and ground-gaining results in our lives. So, take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.–Baptist Bible Hour

We ought to pray as though everything depended on prayer—it does! Although there are other important things to do, we can’t succeed at any of them if we refuse to pray. The daily devotional “Daily in the Word has this to say about the matter:

“Though there is certainly a place for public and corporate prayer, and I have been in some wonderful prayer meetings in my life, there is no substitute for personal private petitions to our Father in Heaven. The praying that we do in public can never carry the depth of emotion and feeling that our private prayers have. The Scottish pastor Thomas Brooks said, “The power of religion and godliness lives, thrives, or dies, as closet [private] prayer lives, thrives, or dies. Godliness never rises to a higher pitch than when men keep closest to their closets.”

Prayer—prevailing, powerful, Bible prayer—is a spiritual discipline. It requires an investment of time, energy and emotion. A few words in a Sunday school class or a church service are no substitute for meaningful and personal time spent with God. We need to make prayer a habit just as Jesus did. Again and again in Scripture we read that He separated Himself from His disciples to spend time with His Father in prayer. Often Jesus was extremely busy with the crowds pressing in to see Him and teaching and healing, so He began the day with prayer. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35). There is no more important priority that we have as believers than to spend time with God in prayer.”