Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform 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. Romans 12:1&2
There is a natural, or we may call it, human leaning towards complacency. We take people and things for granted. For Christians, sadly, this even includes their relationship with God.
In my own life I find that God confronts that smug self absorption with the passage above. For me it is an auditor’s check-list; a reminder of a higher purpose and direction. It is a means to refocus my life.
The check-list is simple, but the challenge profound:
The Challenge: Am I striving to be a living sacrifice? In other words, am I living a life of gratitude to the glory of God, or is it focused on my own wants?
The Warning: Where is my life being shaped by the values and attitudes of the world – those insidious ideas we take on without realising their implications?
The Command: To be transformed. Are my heart and mind open to the restorative and life changing work of the Holy Spirit?
The Reason and Result: Paul reminds me that when the person of faith, lives before God with an openness to His divine hand, then we will be integrated/enveloped by God’s perfect will for His Kingdom and our place in it.
Is this easy? Not in any way as we are often fighting our own perverse wills. Is it important? Certainly! It is about being who God calls you and me to be.
Travels from Ur 