Week 46 - Day 5

Romans 9-12

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Romans 9-12 YouVersion(NIV)

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 NLT

God’s will for us is good and pleasing and perfect; it is better than anything we could plan for ourselves.  How do you know what God’s will is?  You learn to know it just like you learn to know His voice.  You learn to know His will by offering Him your whole life – every part of it, holding nothing back.  You stop worrying about how the world says you should act and think and you let God transform you and your way of thinking. 

And even though you are “sacrificing” your life to follow God’s way, in the end it is so much better than following the world’s way.  Following the way of the world will ultimately leave you empty.  Following God’s way is good, it is pleasing, and it is perfect.  For example, our culture is all about doing what you want, just worrying about yourself first, and making yourself happy.  But God tells us to love others and serve others, and when we do we are blessed beyond measure.  Another big one is that our culture tells us that sex isn’t that big of a deal – before marriage, outside of marriage, with whoever and whenever you want.  But living that way leads to such heartache, such emptiness.  Following God’s way and protecting and valuing sex between a husband and wife only is good, it is pleasing, and it is perfect.

We will face pressure our entire lives to conform to the patterns of society, but as believers we are called to be set apart.  I’m thinking especially today about young people since that is when that pressure seems to be the strongest.  I remember that these two verses from Romans were ones I had to cling to especially in high school.  Praying today for those young students who face that pressure to allow God to transform them trusting in His good will.  I pray they would cling to what is good.  I pray also that they will be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.