Monday June 27, 2011

Read Romans 12:1-3

A soccer team runs onto the field. They’re matched up against the best team in the competition.  As they are ready up for the kick-off the captain yells out to the team, ’Ok. What’s our strategy for this match?’ You can guess which team will win can’t you? You can tell that this team isn’t really serious about soccer and has no idea. You can tell that this team is totally unprepared, can’t you?

Sometimes our Christian lives can slip into a similar pattern of disarray! Life is busy. Life is demanding. There seems to be a never ending array of places to go, things to do, people to see, errands to run and so on... ad infinitum.  And our relationship with God falls by the wayside. Our Christian service suffers. Our output dies!

Like that soccer team we need a strategy for Christian living. We need a plan of attack that will carry us through the tough and rough patches. We need a strategy that will carry us through to victory, even when the flames of temptation and persecution burn higher.

Romans 12:1-3 is our strategy. But notice firstly that it arises out of God’s mercy! Everything we do is a gracious response to the love and mercy God has given us. So out of that mercy, or motivated by that mercy we offer our bodies (our actions and our selves) as living sacrifices. Hear the contradiction clearly. Sacrifices were meant to die. We are to take up our cross and follow Jesus each and every day. We are to look out for ways to serve Him, to promote His kingdom and to bless others with His love.

We are to stop living in the ways of the world. That means we must assess everything we do and everything we are involved in upon the scales of Scripture. “Would God be pleased with…,” is a good question to ask about  everything we do and get involved in.

Added to this, we are to be totally changed from the inside out. We need to change the way we think. We need to renew our mind so that it conforms to the teachings of Scripture. That’s a life long process. I need to start thinking about things (money, spouse, children, house, car, job, assets, friends, enemies, toileting habits etc) in ways that Scripture conform to Scripture. To do this effectively, I need to be in the Word constantly and asking myself how the Word has to change the way I think.  I need to be letting God’s word form my thinking and change, where necessary, my perceptions. Why not start today?

Prayer:

V Pray for opportunities for you to spread God’s Word among your community.

V Pray that you are open and willing to carry out God’s will for your life.

V Pray that God will give you the strength to proclaim your faith and to reach out to those around you.

V Meditate  on Galatians 6:7-10 spend time praising God for the truth. Ask Him to show you how this has been true in your own life.