12 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. 2 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.
3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Terrie's Comments:
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but LET GOD TRANSFORM ME INTO A NEW PERSON BY CHANGING THE WAY I THINK"
Be honest in my evaluation of myself
Use the gifts and abilities that God has given me the best that I can.
I guess the key to this is to identify what the behavior and customs of this world are that I shouldn't copy and then to LET God transform me and letting Him change the way I think. In a world that tends to boast about how independent we are and how we don't need each other it is hard to then rely completely on God and give Him glory for everything. How can I give Him glory more in my life?
Tori's Comments:
"Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
I realize I often ask about knowing the Holy Spirit's voice from others, and these few verses at the beginning sure help.
Ha! I love how it says "the faith God has given us", because I can testify that I can't even be faithful on my own!
"we all belong to each other." I think that's beautiful. And in this sort of relationship, giving up on people because they are too needy or tire you out isn't an option.
I remember a lot of stressing about what God wants me to do with my life, but have come to a peace about it. This passage only reaffirms what I feel about it. I realized God had given me gifts and talents, and it was my job to use them. Not only that, but to glorify God through them. It was such a relief to go from this mindset of needing to convert thousands of people and open orphanages and blah blah blah to....doing a job I feel God has gifted me to do well.
This passage went loads of different directions. I think the "we belong to each other" is something I'll be keeping in mind. What about you? Anything particular stick out?
I know as a wife and mom, that is where my serving mostly lays. Sometimes though, the thoughts and feelings creep in as though I am not doing enough, not making a big enough impact to glorify God. Reading the different gifts and talents helped in these feelings, as I realized I do many of those on a daily basis (encourage, teach etc.) and to also challenge me to excel in those areas.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that stuck out the most was how we are to measure ourselves- against Christ, and not people in this world.
Good food for thought figuring out what we should not copy of this world.
That is really good insight into the mom part Amber. I have those doubts too thanks for the reminder that we use most of those things daily.
ReplyDeleteI have been convicted lately about having more of a complete joy attitude when I am serving or teaching. If I have said yes to doing or helping with something I need to 100% and let God have the glory.
Being moms is an extremely hard job to do. Measuring yourselves against Christ and not others in a world that is always comparing against everyone else is hard. It is however probably a big key in learning to be a great mom and being content with who God has called you to be! We are not all called to be Billy Graham but someone had to raise him up to be who he is and someone had to simply share the gospel message with him... The biggest contribution to the kingdom and your whole purpose in life may be fulfilled by simply being you and raising your kids or showing God's love to the world around you.
ReplyDeleteTerrie