How do you think you would impress God with an offering? Paul tells us what matters:

Romans 12:1 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.

So if you were to offer yourself to God, what do you think would please Him? In other words, how would you worship Him? It’s likely the opposite of any other offering you make.

Think of how regularly you offer yourself; it goes on all the time. For example, there’s the morning offering of yourself to your housemates—“How do I get along with my family, roommates and pets—plants even? How shall I posture myself so those relationships work? How do I avoid being an idiot?” There’s the offering of yourself at work—“What shall I wear? How shall I interact in person or online? How do I avoid being an idiot?” There’s the offering of public speaking or of writing and offering personal opinions to scads of people in person and online—“How do I avoid sounding or writing like an uneducated idiot?” Yeah, there’s a theme, isn’t there? Idiot avoidance.

But the offering that most pleases God is the one in which I don’t try to make anything of myself or change anything about myself. No posturing. No dressing up. No practicing my speech.

The offering that most pleases God is the one that stops me from denigrating myself, scolding myself, shaming myself, or praising myself with God. Why is that? Although I want to own my idiot moments (“I’m sorry about that!”), it’s the offering that chooses faith in what He thinks of me anyway—no matter what—because that’s worshiping and exalting Him and what He’s done for me. And valuing it over everything else. In other words, “I offer myself to you, Lord—the me you know all about. Here I am. You did crucify the old me, the former idiot, and made me new and raised me up; holy, righteous, and fully agreeable with you. I’m the son of your making, and I’m in Christ. So I’ll sacrifice anything else I might think, and choose what you know is true. Thank you that you’re right!” (See Galatians 2:20.)

I’m living by faith and worshiping truly, and God loves it. That’s how I worship God “in view of His mercy…” He loves it. And this former idiot does too.

See you later.