Romans 12 :1-3 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Romans 12:1-3 MSG 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. 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. 3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Observation
The great commandment can be summed up by “Love God with all you have and are and love others in the same way and with the same passion as you want to be loved.” The commandment says nothing about me being loved, but that is the point. In God’s call to become selfless is His promise to care and provide for us – “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…. fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out…. God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” All of this is what God is prepared to do in us when we trust Him enough to focus on love God and love others above ourselves.
Because Paul understands how we are as humans, he says he must remind us “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” because of any recognition or praise we get for our actions. God determines what gifts He gives and to whom. If any of us begin to think our gift or the recognition by others of it makes us more spiritual or special in God’s eyes, we have missed it. Part of placing our lives before God as an offering is accepting the call on our lives without wishing we had someone else’s or becoming inflated with pride because our gift gains recognition. Immediately after these verses, Paul speaks about the body and how every part needs to function for the body to work efficiently. Clog up an invisible part and the whole body suffers!
Impact on Me
This chapter is a place I come to remind myself of the practical outpouring of love to God and others. The last half is my challenge. Paul lists ways to enforce that sacrifice on in my everyday life. I don’t know that taking up that challenge would be possible without embracing the verses that precede that get the focus off me!
If I will commit to become that living sacrifice by putting myself fully in His hands, God will gift me as He sees best, something that will bring true satisfaction and fulfillment to me. In that surrender of all that I think I need, want or dream to be, I will receive His best because only God can truly know what will thrill my heart. “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” I pray that I am done telling God how to run my life! I am ready to listen and obey.
Prayer
Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, Creator, Savior, Lover of my soul, I come to you with praise and gratitude for Who You are and What You have done for me. All that I choose to do for You is done by You working in and through me, leaving behind the blessing and grace to mature me in the process. Remind me always that my best will always be accomplished by faithfully walking in the footsteps You place before me, being a support to others that endeavor to do the same, and encourage those who have wandered to find the way back. I ask this all in the name of Jesus. Make it so.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 