Romans 12 is a spiritually warm place to spend time while we wait for the winter to pass into spring. It is like a garden for the soul. The thing that makes everything in Romans 12 possible is presented at the very beginning.  “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.” [NLT]

By keeping God’s mercy always in view, we can now offer our “bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” God wants us to live for Him. He who gave us life, not just our physical life but also our spiritual life in Christ Jesus wants us to live for Him!

There is a provision given in the law in Deuteronomy 15:12-17, which freed a Hebrew servant in the seventh year. He was to be released and given a liberal provision from the flocks, threshing floors and winepress.

The servant had a second option though. He could say, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loved his master and was well off with him. When that happened, the master was to take an awl and push it through the servant’s ear lobe (“my ears you have opened” Psalm 40:6) and he would become the master’s servant for life.

That is the provision of Romans 12:1. We have been set free by the mercy of God, but in view of that very mercy, we now declare to our master, “I do not want to leave you.”  We are now servants who offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him.