Week 5
You may have read this translation of Romans 12:1-2 before.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
But there is another translation of this scripture that you need to read. This translation helps us
see this passage in the everyday actions of our lives.
Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become
so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from
you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its
level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Paul is inviting us to take our everyday ordinary lives and give them to God. God has given us
our personalities, talents, and interests, and we chose how we will use them. Will we use them in
living our ordinary lives in ordinary ways? Or will we live our ordinary lives in extra-ordinary
ways through seeing the world with God’s eyes and living each day under his direction?
How often do we find ourselves going through the motions or doing what everyone else around us is doing? We end up sleeping, eating, going to work, doing our household chores, raising families, running to activities, watching TV, and browsing the internet as if on autopilot. Time flies by with little meaning or purpose. Or life becomes so difficult, that we do not know how to handle our lives. When we allow God to walk beside us each day to direct us, our lives are completely different. Life becomes an adventure when lived with God. Life truly becomes life. Living this way does not mean that suddenly, life becomes perfect and everything goes our way. Yet as this scripture says, God brings the best out of us. God brings us to a maturity that makes life worth living and sharing with others. We find we are strengthened to live in a way that truly reflects God’s love.
Continue to come into the Father’s house to find and develop this strength and maturity. You will find that your ordinary life, can truly be lived in extraordinary ways – giving life to you and to those around you.
Time of Prayer:
1) 1 min – What is God saying to me through this devotional?
2) 1 min – What am I going to do about it?
3) 1 min – What do I want to say to God?
4) 2 min – Listen for what God wants to say to you now.
How often do we find ourselves going through the motions or doing what everyone else around us is doing? We end up sleeping, eating, going to work, doing our household chores, raising families, running to activities, watching TV, and browsing the internet as if on autopilot. Time flies by with little meaning or purpose. Or life becomes so difficult, that we do not know how to handle our lives. When we allow God to walk beside us each day to direct us, our lives are completely different. Life becomes an adventure when lived with God. Life truly becomes life. Living this way does not mean that suddenly, life becomes perfect and everything goes our way. Yet as this scripture says, God brings the best out of us. God brings us to a maturity that makes life worth living and sharing with others. We find we are strengthened to live in a way that truly reflects God’s love.
Continue to come into the Father’s house to find and develop this strength and maturity. You will find that your ordinary life, can truly be lived in extraordinary ways – giving life to you and to those around you.
Time of Prayer:
1) 1 min – What is God saying to me through this devotional?
2) 1 min – What am I going to do about it?
3) 1 min – What do I want to say to God?
4) 2 min – Listen for what God wants to say to you now.