Romans 12:1-2: How to Give God Your Whole Heart

Cheryl Marshall: Sometimes we can think that living a life of worship and being wholeheartedly devoted to God is something that happens big time, something that happens on a stage, or a huge visible accomplishment. But as I see in the life of thousands and thousands of women throughout history, these are lives of faithfulness that are just day by day, in whatever circumstance and whatever season God has given us. And I think Romans 12:1–2 show us how to do that and how to do it well.

Ellen: Hi, friends. Before I dive into my conversation, I wanted to share this comment that one of you shared with me.

A listener from Texas writes, “I just listened to the podcast with Paige Allen. Such an encouragement. So often I think that in order to be pleasing to God, I have to do something huge and drastic, like leave everything and become a missionary.

But this conversation reminded me that my story is all about God and not about me.

I can be faithful in the little things, like doing laundry and making meals for my family. Thank you for always helping me draw closer to the Lord.”

Well, amen and amen. Thank you so much for leaving that incredible comment. I’m so glad that impacted you in a positive way.

If there’s something that you would like to share on our podcast, please leave a note in the comments or reviews and send us a message in the fan mail link in the show notes.

Well, I loved hearing from you. Before I let you go, keep in mind that we are doing another book giveaway this week. So make sure you keep listening to the end to find out how to enter. All right, back to the podcast.

Ellen Krause: Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. I’m Ellen, your host. Today we’re talking about what it means to live a life that is fully devoted to God, not perfectly, but wholeheartedly.

And I think that you’re going to be so encouraged by what Scripture has to say about how God meets us in that process and transforms us from the inside out.

I am joined today by Cheryl Marshall. Cheryl has spent more than 25 years discipling and teaching women in the local church. She serves as director of women’s ministries at Founders Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, and is the host of the Whole Life Worship podcast. Cheryl, welcome.

Cheryl Marshall: Thank you. I’m so happy to be with you today.

Ellen Krause: Well, I thought a good place for us to start today is I’d love to just read Romans 12:1–2, since this is really the deep dive that we’re going to be going into.

It says, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What made you decide, Cheryl, on these verses as the ideal roadmap for pursuing whole-life devotion?

Cheryl Marshall: Good question. It really comes down to what Paul is doing in the book of Romans. And I’m just trying to get into the mind of Paul. What was he thinking?

So Romans 1 through 11 is all about the mercies of God. He has shown us in those chapters our desperate need for Christ because of our sin. He’s shown us that Christ is the perfect sacrifice, he’s the perfect Savior. He then shows us that we are saved by grace and not by works, and that it all comes by the sovereign hand of God.

And at the end of that, Paul then praises God at the end of verse—chapter 11: “For from him and through him and to him are all things.” And then at that point, Paul turns and he says, “Now live.” Now that you know this, now that you have been saved by the mercy of God, you know his grace, his kindness in Christ Jesus, this is how I want you to move forward from the day he saves you until the day he takes you home.

And what is so amazing is that he could have used any kind of word picture there, but he uses the word picture of a living sacrifice. And so I was thinking, you know, we better understand what he means by that, if that is the one word picture he uses to explain the rest of the chapters of how to walk with God faithfully. And so that’s what really drew me then to those two verses.

Verse one, Paul calls us to be a living sacrifice, but in verse two, he tells us how to do it.

Ellen Krause: And that just, like you said, is the perfect setup for sort of jumping into this whole idea of having wholehearted devotion. I love that Paul begins this passage by saying that he’s appealing to believers by the mercies of God.

Cheryl Marshall: Yes.

Ellen Krause: Why is that such an important starting point for wholehearted devotion?

Cheryl Marshall: I think of wholehearted devotion as wholehearted or whole-life worship, where our bodies, our inner person, our outer person, all of us belong to the Lord now. But how were we reconciled to God? It was only through Christ.

And so we start with the mercies because that is how we know God. It’s through Christ. Christ came, He died on the cross for our sins, He rose again, and now He gives us new life by faith. We now have the Spirit. He’s given us new desires, but He’s also given us new power we never had.

We were once dead in our trespasses and sins. And what can a dead man do? A dead man can do nothing, but he’s made us new in Christ.

And it’s because of that mercy and all the mercies that accompany it, we now are even able to walk in devotion to the Lord. And so that’s why Paul starts there, and he calls us to be motivated by that, not motivated by fear of God or guilt before God. Those have been cared for by Christ. Christ has accomplished all of that.

We’re not to approach Him and—or approach some sort of life of religiosity—out of pride. It’s His mercy that has shown us humility, that we need the Lord. And now it’s by Him that we glorify Him.

Ellen Krause: That is so beautiful. So, with that mercy in mind, then believers are called to present their bodies as a sacrifice. And I think this can be confusing language for someone, let’s say, who’s reading that for the first time.

What does it actually mean to offer our whole selves to God? And why does Paul specifically talk about our bodies?

Cheryl Marshall: Yes, this is central to this whole idea of being a living sacrifice. First of all, I do believe that Paul is talking about our literal bodies—our eyes, our ears, our hands, our feet. Everything is to be used to glorify Him.

And I think a passage that really helps us understand that is Romans 6, where Paul says, use the members of your body, the parts of your body, as instruments or tools of righteousness. And he goes on to say in Romans 6, do not use the members of your body as instruments, or we can say again, tools, for unrighteousness or disobedience.

Every part of our body is to be used in a way that glorifies God and not to be used in a way that dishonors Him.

But in that, I think there’s also a figurative aspect that Paul is talking about. And he’s saying your body is representative of the whole of who you are.

So, for example, let’s say there’s a young man who asks for a young lady’s hand in marriage. He’s not just asking for her hand. He’s asking for the whole of her. He’s asking for her life to be joined with his life.

In the same way, when Paul says present your body, he’s not just saying, okay, just take care of the outside. He’s saying, “No, all that you are.”

The body is representative of the whole. My desires, my motives, my personality, my choices, my dreams, all of those things that are within me now belong to Him as well and are to be submitted to Him for His good purposes.

Ellen Krause: That was such a beautiful description of what Paul is talking about there, Cheryl. Thank you so much for that.

Let’s pick it a little bit apart where we can see, like, what might it look like in the ordinary parts of a woman’s life—her work and relationships, her schedule, the way she cares for herself.

Cheryl Marshall: Sure. I’ll use a very specific example. And I know your listeners will just have to draw this out into other areas of their lives, okay?

But let’s say a mother has a child who is really misbehaving. I mean, that kid is just giving her a run for her money that day. And all of a sudden, that child does something, and Mom begins disciplining in anger.

And maybe she is now responding to that child with her hands or her mouth in a way that she shouldn’t. My hope would be that a woman who knows the Lord, who’s been thinking about living wholly devoted to God, will in that moment be arrested by the Holy Spirit and look down at her hands and say, “These hands are to be a living sacrifice to God. I should not be using my hands toward this child in this way.”

“My mouth is to be a living sacrifice unto God. I need to stop responding to this child with my mouth the way I am. I need to respond to this child differently.”

So I think your listeners can probably, if they’ve had children, they’ve been there. They’ve faced that kind of temptation.

But think about it in your work. Let’s say at work there’s a boss or a situation where you’re being pressured to be dishonest with the books. How are you going to use your mind? How are you going to use your skills that God has given you to do well in accounting or whatever it is?

But now, am I going to submit even those to God for righteousness’ sake and not to dishonor Him? So it applies every day in all sorts of situations.

Ellen Krause: Yes, it absolutely does. That’s something that we can always be thinking about in our thoughts and actions.

Well, let’s talk a little bit about what keeps us from devotion. You identify three ways that our devotion to God can become divided: distraction, disobedience, and discouragement.

And I really appreciated you digging in a little bit deeper on this. Tell our listeners why these are such significant obstacles to wholehearted devotion.

Cheryl Marshall: Sure. So, starting with distraction, we are busy people. We are busy women. There’s many things on our lists. We also have social media. But what I want the reader to do is to think a little bit deeper.

Underneath the to-do list, underneath all the activities and hobbies and work and responsibilities, what are the distractions underneath that? In other words, what are the motives that are driving you?

Are you being distracted from doing all to the glory of God because you have a motive of seeking your own glory? Are you distracted from making your choices for the glory of God because you’re more concerned about the glory of someone else? You are seeking to please someone else.

So the Scripture says, “Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.” That can be a real struggle for all of us, even without us thinking about it.

You know, it’s sort of like we’re the frog in the pot who’s being boiled a little bit at a time. We even lose sight that we’re no longer living to please the Lord. It’s now about me. Or it’s all about pleasing someone else.

So, first of all, that kind of distraction can divide our wholehearted devotion to God.

The second thing, of course, is disobedience. Just plain out, I’m disobeying. I am not honoring the Lord in this relationship or in this other area of my life. And that really hinders our relationship with the Lord.

It’s easy for us to minimize our sin, to rename it, to just ignore it. But as believers, God calls us to immediately confess it, to forsake it, to put it off and say, “Okay, what does God want me to put on instead?”

So, of course, disobedience is going to undermine walking in faithfulness to the Lord.

But then there’s one that we don’t think about and how it really can impact our desire to glorify God. And it’s when we’re suffering and when we are going through a time of great discouragement, whether it be physical suffering or some sort of relational or emotional, spiritual discouragement.

And it can be tempting to think, “There’s no way He can be glorified in this. This is just so bad. This is just so hard. And there’s no way that I can glorify God because I’m so weak right now.”

And yet, by the Spirit and by His Word, He does show us that in every situation we can walk through it in a way that glorifies God.

As it says in—I believe it’s 1 Corinthians—“No temptation or trial has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tried beyond what you are able, but with that temptation or trial will give you a way to endure it, to walk through it.”

And through my walk with the Lord and my study of Scriptures, I have become convinced, and I often have to remind myself of this, that discouragement in the Christian walk is real. It can be strong. But the power of Christ within us is stronger.

And sometimes we’ll still feel weak. Doesn’t mean we feel strong, but He does give us a path by which to glorify Him in obedience to His Word.

Ellen Krause: You know, that discouragement piece, having been in women’s ministry for a long time, like yourself, I just have seen that over and over and over again. And I guess I never really thought of it, but it’s so true.

That can be such a dividing point between our devotion to God and just wanting to give up on God and push Him away.

And it’s kind of a very little sneaky way of losing our connection and our devotion to God because, you know, we feel like we’re doing the right things, but our life is spiraling out of control or whatever it might be, and your heart is just growing weary.

What advice would you give to someone who maybe is listening to this today and is feeling so discouraged, tired, or disappointed?

Cheryl Marshall: Mm-hmm. Well, I will share what has been an encouragement to me, and that is the sovereignty of God. Knowing that nothing comes to me apart from the hand of God.

I am His child. I am His daughter. He loves me. And so I can trust Him.

And something my husband has said to me maybe thousands of times, he has said, “Cheryl, God not only knows your limitations, He has ordained them.”

And the reason that has been helpful to me is because it has reminded me that whatever situation I am in, that is the situation in which God has given me to glorify Him. This is where He has hemmed me in, so that in this I can put His glory on display.

And you know what? It’s His prerogative to glorify Himself through this in whatever way He sees is best.

But when we think about the sovereignty of God, we have to remember that, yes, just as He is perfect in sovereignty, He is perfect in wisdom, and He is perfect in love.

I can rest in that.

Ellen Krause: In your experience, Cheryl, in doing women’s ministry, have you seen people come through these periods of deep discouragement and sort of come out on the other side and recognizing what you said?

Because I think when you’re in the midst of it, it’s just very, it can be very difficult.

Cheryl Marshall: Yes. I have seen that. And I’m gonna just use my mom as an example of that.

At the very beginning of the book, I tell the story of my grandmother. And I hate to give away the end of it, but I will for your listeners. At the end of that story in chapter one, I explain how my grandmother actually passed away in church on my mother’s birthday, my mother’s 27th birthday.

That was the year before I was born, so I never knew my grandmother. But I do remember at times having discussions with my mom as I got older and just asking my mom how she walked through that time as a 27-year-old newly married young woman, and her mother passes away on her birthday.

And, you know, my mom said to me, she said, “Cheryl,” she said, “I’d never been in a church where I was really taught the sovereignty of God, but I think the Holy Spirit provided that at that time.”

And she says, “I walked away from that season convinced that that was when the exact moment the Lord wanted to take my mother home, and that He had His good purposes and that I could trust Him.”

So forward 50 years or more, my sister passed away about two years ago in a hit-and-run accident. And my mother, of course, is still living, and we had to walk through that together.

And I still remember my mom telling me, “Cheryl, just as I knew the Lord took Mama at the right moment, I have to believe that this is when the Lord wanted to take Kathy. This was the exact moment that none of us could have expected.”

But she has clung to the Lord. Does that mean my mom has been just happy-go-lucky through it all? By no means.

But it has been a comfort for her to know that her heavenly Father has seen her and knows her and loves her. And that’s been such an example to me. It’s been an example to the women in our church.

There’s many more stories of other women I could tell, but that’s the one that’s close to my heart.

Ellen Krause: And that story is so beautiful. And there are so many wonderful more details to that story. So I would encourage, if you’re listening and you want to learn more about that, you should pick up Cheryl’s book because she sounded like an amazing woman and the whole story of how she passed away in church and continues to live right in all of eternity.

Cheryl Marshall: Mm-hmm.

Ellen Krause: Keeping that perspective, our eternal home, in mind is so, I think, critical to not letting that discouragement piece overshadow and get in the way of what God wants to do in our lives.

Well, Cheryl, you mentioned a couple of times in the book, you referred to R. C. Sproul, which is one of my favorite theologians,

Cheryl Marshall: Mm-hmm.

Ellen Krause: and just his ministry of, you know, transforming through the transformation of your mind and reading God’s Word.

And this morning I was reading Psalm 145, and I wanted to just read a couple verses of that here this morning because I thought it was just so—it’s such an incredible song of praise of David. But I’m just gonna read 14 through 16.

It says, “The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and You satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

And this psalm just goes on and on and declares the majesty and beauty and righteousness and steadfast love and so many incredible characteristics of God.

And, you know, when I was reading in your book about the renewing of your mind with Scripture, it’s those types of things that just ground me personally in the start of my day, or knowing that I have a God who is so much bigger, who is in control of everything.

Whether I’m feeling good, bad, or indifferent, it’s God in His ways that I need to put ahead of my own.

And so, how have you personally, Cheryl, just your practice of renewing your mind with Scripture? And how has that helped you in your life?

Cheryl Marshall: Well, if we can tie that into your last question about the woman who may be discouraged and even what you just said right now, I love the Psalms as well.

Renewing my mind, a lot of that takes place in my time in the book of Psalms. So as I go through Psalms, whether I’m discouraged or I’m facing a challenge, or even if it is a good season, still being reminded of the character of God.

So when I go to the Scriptures, I’m looking for who He is, what He’s like, what He’s done, His faithfulness that endures, as it says in the Psalms, from generation to generation.

Ellen Krause: Yes.

Cheryl Marshall: The beginning of Psalm 103 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits,” which takes us back to the mercies of God, right? We think on the mercies of God.

And so now I want to live for You because I love You and You are so good.

But renewing my mind with Scripture, a lot of that is in my time in the book of Psalms, where I will just write down, what is the attribute of God I see here in this passage I’m reading? What has He done?

And then I stop and I go back, and then I pray through the Scriptures. And I think that’s a really important thing to help your listeners if they’re thinking, “How can I renew my mind more and more with the Word of God?”

Yes, be reading it, studying it. Make sure you’re in a good church where you’re hearing sound preaching, but then also develop the habit of praying back through Scripture and taking what you have seen and bringing it before the Lord in your own context, with your own words, praising Him, asking for His help, just casting yourself upon Him as you have found Him in His Word.

He wants to commune with you. See, God’s Word and being in God’s Word, not just as an academic exercise, but this is me communing with my Lord and Savior.

Ellen Krause: Yes. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. I love to do the same thing. I have my purple highlighter, and I’m highlighting all the names of God and underlining the characteristics that I learned.

And then we actually had a podcast not too long ago. We’ll put a link in the show notes about praying through Scripture. And that’s exactly what I love to do with the Psalms as well. I go back and I look and I see all of these purple names of God and qualities.

And it does renew your mind. It does give you that encouragement that you need, that God is bigger than any problem that I could possibly have, that He will get me through.

Well, as we start to wrap things up here, if someone is listening and wants to just take one small step forward in living a life that is more wholeheartedly with God, where would you encourage her to begin?

Cheryl Marshall: I love that. Two small little things, but they go together.

The first one is turn to Psalm 86, verse 11, where it says, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” And just read around that little section, Psalm 86:11, and pray that. Begin praying that in your own way.

“Lord, unite my heart to fear Your name. Give me a heart that desires to glorify You. Give me a heart that wants Your honor above my own.”

And then I would say, and it’s tightly related to that, is begin meditating on a few different Scriptures. Now, what is meditation? Meditation is thinking carefully about the Word of God for the purpose of application.

What does this mean? How does this apply to my life? Lord, what do You want to show me here? I mean, there’s all different ways. You can look that up of how to meditate on Scripture.

But if I could, I’m going to give about four or five different Scriptures for a woman to think on to help her to begin growing and changing her heart to truly desire this kind of living.

First of all, of course, Romans 12:1–2. But then 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 5:9, 2 Corinthians 5:15, and 1 Corinthians 6:20.

For me, those are the verses that really got to my heart where they encouraged me, but also inspired me to say, “You know, this life is not my own. I’ve been bought with a price. Therefore, I want to glorify God with this body.”

Ellen Krause: Thank you for sharing that, Cheryl. Those are—that’s just a great way to begin stepping into this wholehearted devotion.

And one additional Scripture passage that just came to my mind, and only because we’ve been studying it here at Coffee and Bible Time, is Psalm 119 and just loving God with your whole heart.

I don’t even know how many times “whole heart” is mentioned in there—

Cheryl Marshall: Mm-hmm.

Ellen Krause: —but it’s multiple.

Ellen: Hey, everyone. We are doing another book giveaway for the Cheryl Marshall All of Me podcast. And I hope that you will enter by leaving us a comment either on Spotify or YouTube, or you can send us a message through the link in the show notes. We would love to get you this book.

Ellen Krause: Well, Cheryl, in your life, who would you describe as fully devoted to God, and what does their devotion look like?

Cheryl Marshall: Well, there are several women I could mention, but one who comes to mind is my mother’s best friend. Her name’s Margie. And I first met her when I was a teenager. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that woman has prayed for me every day for the last 40 years.

She’s been a servant in her church and to others for many years. She’s gone through a lot of hardship. But there’s a real humility about her, a real dependence upon the Lord that I see in her life.

You know, she struggles with back problems right now, so she can’t get around that much. But when I do speak with her, I just still hear that love for God and that love that expresses itself in humility and dependence upon Him.

So she’s a real example to me.

Sometimes we can think that living a life of worship and being wholeheartedly devoted to God is something that happens big time, something that happens on a stage, or something that is like a huge visible accomplishment.

But as I see in Margie’s life and the life of thousands and thousands of women throughout history and in the life of my grandmother at the beginning of the book,

Ellen Krause: Yes.

Cheryl Marshall: These are lives of faithfulness that are just day by day, in whatever circumstance and whatever season God has given us. And I think Romans 12:1–2 show us how to do that and how to do it well.

Ellen Krause: Yes, yes, absolutely. And if you stumble, you can pick yourself right back up because God’s mercies are new every morning.

Cheryl Marshall: They are.

Ellen Krause: Cheryl, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your book called All of Me?

Cheryl Marshall: Well, they can come visit me at CherylMarshall.com. On Instagram, it’s underscore Cheryl Marshall. I do speak about Whole Life Worship on the Whole Life Worship podcast. Oh, and of course the book is available at all major booksellers. And it is from the Good Book Company.

So if you want to get the book at a group discount, because you want to go through it with a group with the study guide at the end, you can get that there as well. And I think that’s it.

Ellen Krause: Wonderful. Well, we will make sure we include all of those links in our show notes.

Before I let you go, I need to do our rapid-fire questions. We ask all our guests here, what is your go-to Bible, and what translation is it?

Cheryl Marshall: My go-to Bible is the John MacArthur Study Bible, and I use the New American Standard version.

Ellen Krause: Excellent. Okay. Do you have any favorite Bible journaling supplies? Do you like to Bible journal? Mm-hmm.

Cheryl Marshall: I’m not a big journal journaler, but I do use an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven leather bound off of Amazon, and I just get another color each time. So, nothing fancy.

Ellen Krause: Wonderful. All right, lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?

Cheryl Marshall: I like Logos and also blueletterbible.org.

Ellen Krause: Both great choices. Great choices.

Well, Cheryl, thank you so much for being here today. This has just been such an encouraging conversation for me, and I just really appreciate your heart’s devotion in putting this out there for everyone else who wants to read about it.

Cheryl Marshall: Well, thank you for having me. It’s been a real privilege to be here.

Ellen Krause: And to our listeners, if you’re realizing there are areas of your life that you haven’t fully surrendered to God, I hope you remember this. Paul doesn’t tell us to give God everything because we need to earn His love. He says to do it because of God’s mercies.

We can love God and worship Him because He first loved us.

Well, thank you for joining us on today’s podcast. We’ll see you next time. Have a blessed day.