The Gospel According to Paul: Keep Surrendering in Faith and Be Transformed. Message Magazine’s Online Devotional for Thursday, May 3, 2018
Listen to “Thoughts in Worship 05.03.2018” on Spreaker.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1–2).
Surrender Your Best To Him
God has done so much for us, in giving us His Son as our substitute. His gift means we will not need to die for our sins. It is reasonable, therefore, that we should present ourselves to God. It’s the least we can do to surrender our best for His service.
For some reason, we lay back when we achieve a certain level of success or blessings; it’s called, “resting on your laurels.” Complacency is the killer of progress and momentum. It causes us to deceive ourselves into believing that if we take a break from whatever got us into the positive position, we can pick up where we left off. Not only is this untrue in the secular world, but it is also untrue, and more so, in the spiritual world.
Faith in Full Force
If you wish to be spiritually successful and have a thriving relationship with God, retain the zeal of your first love with God, and the habits that drove you closest to Him in the first place. You entered your relationship with Him through faith. Continually submit yourself to God through the same brand of faith until Jesus returns.
Never underestimate truehearted commitment to God. We are to be diligent in presenting our bodies to God. Any trend that we cling to that impairs our judgment or health must be completely abandoned. God does not accept lame sacrifices.
In our day, a lame sacrifice is when we neglect to follow God’s laws of nature and health yet proclaim full surrender to God. A lame sacrifice is what we are when we feed our bodies with unhealthful foods and drinks. We are lame sacrifices when we do not do all we can to preserve health according to all God has revealed in Scripture.
Transformational Power
Our merciful God has given all to us, even to the point of giving us His dear Son to save us from our sins. When we continually surrender all to Him, we can expect transformational power. We can expect not to be squeezed into the world’s mold. And as we experience this transformational power, we become examples of God’s ability to make us holy, just, and good. We become examples of His power to make us all that is well-pleasing and perfect, according to His will.
I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, are you?
