ROMANS 12:10-12

Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

TO PONDER

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul spends the first 11 chapters detailing all that God has done to make us his children, to enable us to live in a close intimate relationship with our God, and begin the adventure of living now and eternity in that relationship. He explains that we don’t have a distant God who we have to try to appease, but one who is committed to enriching our lives. Then we get to chapter 12 where Paul provides some practical ways that we live out this new relationship.

I like the translation of verse 11 from The Voice: Do not slack in your faithfulness and hard work. Let your spirit be on fire, bubbling up and boiling over, as you serve the Lord. Paul’s directive only makes sense if we have fully internalised those first 11 chapters of the letter. We are not going to be committed to excellence and find excitement in what God is calling us to do if we don’t first grasp how much God has already done for us in making us his children and inviting us to be part of the heavenly family for eternity.

If you are like me, in the busyness of life, it is easy to be so preoccupied with dealing with the realities in front of me that it is easy to forget what God has done for us and how God would be wanting to help us deal with the issues we are facing. I think we have become so compartmentalised in our relationship with God that we have parts of our lives where He is involved and other parts where we tend to act as if He didn’t exist. Could we envision our lives being so transformed by God that 100% of the things we do and say are motivated by God’s love and commitment to us and filled with the joy of God guiding us in serving Him and others.

Although we know we could never achieve this in practice, we believe that this was the way Jesus lived out his life while on this earth - 100% of the things He did and said were motivated by the Father’s love and commitment to Him and His love and commitment to doing what His Father asked Him to do for us. We believe that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to change us to be more like Jesus. May we surrender to the Holy Spirit to continue his work of changing us.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, there are so many parts of my life where I want to remain in control and not hand them over to You. I know that’s crazy, because You only want what is best for me. Thank You for the way You are working with me to help me let go of the things I cling to, and discover more of the joy of You working in my life to bless others. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping