Romans 12:1-2
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.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
One of my dearest friends (who is now in Heaven) used to say, “I never did anything with my life.” This was so far from the truth that it was almost laughable. What Becky meant was that she never finished college – never got the nursing degree she had hoped to obtain… never “spread her wings” and lived anywhere but her home town. What she didn’t always recognize was how successful she was as a wife, mother, servant in her church and community, office manager in her dad’s construction business, and friend to more than she could count. Becky could never fathom that her life would leave such a mark on others that we still speak of her with admiration and respect to this day.
The point is that God doesn’t call everyone to become a celebrity or live in the limelight. And honestly, He uses the ordinary, everyday experiences of our lives as much or more than those we consider grand and impressive – if we are living for Him. In the coming weeks, many will graduate from high school or college, marry, move, or begin new jobs and new adventures. If you are one of them, remember that whatever you do is important to God… when you offer it to Him.
Whether you are spending the summer as an intern, babysitting, or filling boats with gas at a marina, you can serve God. If you are starting graduate school or an entry-level job, you can offer your work to Him and conduct yourself in a way that glorifies His name. If you are a stay-at-home mom or a retired grandpa who spends his days building bluebird houses or piddling in the garden, you can give these activities to God, and He will bless them.
My point is that God can use anything and everyone. When you do the laundry clean your house, wash the car or mow the lawn, you are caring for your family and being a good steward of God’s blessings… and He will bless you for doing so. When you nurture children, smile at the clerk at Wal-Mart, or rescue stray animals, God can be glorified. You don’t have to earn a Ph.D. or live in a mega-mansion for God to use you… although He can! You don’t have to be a certain age, have a specific amount of money, be a world-class athlete, or look like a model…you are special to God just as you are!
You may have heard the phrase, “Bloom where you are planted.” God wants us to bloom for Him… wherever He plants us. Recognize that everything you do and say is an opportunity to glorify His name. Don’t try to become something you are not – or that God did not design for you. Don’t let the world dictate how you think, speak or act. Ask GOD who you should be… and live comfortably and simply in His will… regardless of your age or where you find yourself these days,
If you are not completely certain you are living a mature, Christ-centered life, ask God to help you shift your focus and turn your attention back to Him. Whatever your age or station in life, you can focus on God and glorify Him in all you do. Are you blooming where you’ve been planted?
©2012 Debbie Robus
Showing posts with label conformity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conformity. Show all posts
Daily Devotional for January 18, 2011
1 Corinthians 7:20
So don't try to change what you were when God chose you.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
When we got our first kitten, she was extremely wild. A friend “caught” her as she and her litter mates followed their mother across busy Highway 7 just north of Arkansas Tech. Tigger was clearly the runt of the litter, and she was just slow enough for our friend to rescue. The others made it safely across the road and into thick brush. For weeks after Tigger came to our home, she would hide under the couch, scared to death of her enormous owners. This tiny kitten fit in the palm of our hand. I would reach under the couch and drag her out… then wrap her in a dish towel to protect myself from her tiny, razor-sharp claws… and I would hold her tightly to my chest and talk soothingly to her.
I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but eventually, Tigger was no longer afraid of us or our little mobile home. She snuggled with us voluntarily, played and romped through the place, and generally became “Queen of the Castle.” When we would drive home to visit our family on weekends, she road on the dashboard of our car… perfectly content to doze there – even oblivious to the motion of the windshield wipers when it rained.
Then Tigger had kittens… and she changed again. She was still loving and fearless, but her contentment in the car was gone forever. All it took was one long, miserable ride home with her babies in a basket… crying, sick, and unhappy… and she had forever had enough of the car. From that point forward, there was no changing her. She was totally disgusted with the car and would let us know it! We might have succeeded in changing her from a terrified kitten on the side of the road into a loving, nurturing house cat… but we would never get her to ride on our dashboard again!
I will tell you right now… people will try to change you all of your life. Friends will want you to like what they like… to enjoy their same tastes in everything from fashion to sports to video games and music. Love interests may try to get you to become more like them. They may tell others, “He would be perfect if I could just get him to like musicals…” or “She is great except for being so disorganized… if I can just change that, we’ll get along fine.” Still others may say, “You need to come to this Bible study we are having – if you were serious about your walk with God, you would come to more things like this.”
Go back and read the verses leading up to 1 Corinthians 7:20. Clearly, God has a plan for our lives, and while some changes are positive – and there is nothing wrong with a Bible study, becoming more organizing, or deciding you like musicals – we can’t become someone else. We are who God made us to be… and trying to change to suit anyone except Him is just plain wrong. It will only lead to misery and possible disaster. We are not feral kittens who can be “tamed” over time… and this is not God’s design for us!
Search your heart… and spend time every day talking to God. Ask Him in all circumstances… “Is this what You want me to do? Is this who You have called me to be?” Trust His answers. If you sense that God is telling you the changes you are about to make are not of His doing, stop immediately and move in another direction.
The devil will delight in using others to try to sway your opinions… and he’s really clever at making a convincing argument. Our job as Christians is to stay awake and alert – and in constant communication with our Heavenly Father, who chose us just as we were and doesn’t want anyone else. Be authentic… be who God chose…only change if HE says so!
©2011 Debbie Robus
So don't try to change what you were when God chose you.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
When we got our first kitten, she was extremely wild. A friend “caught” her as she and her litter mates followed their mother across busy Highway 7 just north of Arkansas Tech. Tigger was clearly the runt of the litter, and she was just slow enough for our friend to rescue. The others made it safely across the road and into thick brush. For weeks after Tigger came to our home, she would hide under the couch, scared to death of her enormous owners. This tiny kitten fit in the palm of our hand. I would reach under the couch and drag her out… then wrap her in a dish towel to protect myself from her tiny, razor-sharp claws… and I would hold her tightly to my chest and talk soothingly to her.
I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but eventually, Tigger was no longer afraid of us or our little mobile home. She snuggled with us voluntarily, played and romped through the place, and generally became “Queen of the Castle.” When we would drive home to visit our family on weekends, she road on the dashboard of our car… perfectly content to doze there – even oblivious to the motion of the windshield wipers when it rained.
Then Tigger had kittens… and she changed again. She was still loving and fearless, but her contentment in the car was gone forever. All it took was one long, miserable ride home with her babies in a basket… crying, sick, and unhappy… and she had forever had enough of the car. From that point forward, there was no changing her. She was totally disgusted with the car and would let us know it! We might have succeeded in changing her from a terrified kitten on the side of the road into a loving, nurturing house cat… but we would never get her to ride on our dashboard again!
I will tell you right now… people will try to change you all of your life. Friends will want you to like what they like… to enjoy their same tastes in everything from fashion to sports to video games and music. Love interests may try to get you to become more like them. They may tell others, “He would be perfect if I could just get him to like musicals…” or “She is great except for being so disorganized… if I can just change that, we’ll get along fine.” Still others may say, “You need to come to this Bible study we are having – if you were serious about your walk with God, you would come to more things like this.”
Go back and read the verses leading up to 1 Corinthians 7:20. Clearly, God has a plan for our lives, and while some changes are positive – and there is nothing wrong with a Bible study, becoming more organizing, or deciding you like musicals – we can’t become someone else. We are who God made us to be… and trying to change to suit anyone except Him is just plain wrong. It will only lead to misery and possible disaster. We are not feral kittens who can be “tamed” over time… and this is not God’s design for us!
Search your heart… and spend time every day talking to God. Ask Him in all circumstances… “Is this what You want me to do? Is this who You have called me to be?” Trust His answers. If you sense that God is telling you the changes you are about to make are not of His doing, stop immediately and move in another direction.
The devil will delight in using others to try to sway your opinions… and he’s really clever at making a convincing argument. Our job as Christians is to stay awake and alert – and in constant communication with our Heavenly Father, who chose us just as we were and doesn’t want anyone else. Be authentic… be who God chose…only change if HE says so!
©2011 Debbie Robus
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