
Ok. You got ouf of the quicksand and God's Word is speaking to you in a new and fresh way. So what happens now? Romans 12:1 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.
Give yourself to God in every area of your life. Get deep into His Word and the mysteries of life will be "mysteries no more!" Scripture says in Matthew 13:11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not.12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. Some will get in on the mysteries of God and some won't. You want to be the one who does, and that happens as you study God's Word and the Holy Spirit reveals the deeper truths of scripture to you. I find it remarkable that those who are lost without Jesus don't get to see all of these truths and those who know Jesus do get to see them and know them, but they don't pursue them. Jesus also said in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. We need to be seekers....
Next, we give our body to Him and He will take that sacrifice as acceptable and do something with it. This verse might seem a little confusing, but it really isn't when it comes down to it. Since Jesus gave Himself by dying for us, it seems right that we live our lives for Him. Every part of our body, the soul, the heart, the mind, the will, the physical, everything for Him. Paul writes that this is an acceptable or reasonable thing to do. So we take seriously everything that goes into our body (physical health) and everything that goes in our mind (reasoning), and everything that affects our heart (emotions and life direction) and everything that goes in our soul (faith and peace). If we give our total life to Him Jesus will conform us to His image and His way of living. The Prophet Isaiah said it this way in Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father,We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. Jesus will reform our life to fall in line with His will and His way, and we will look at life a whole lot different than a lost world. We will exude HOPE, because we have hope inside of us.
And finally, we give Him our future days. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. We begin to see our attitude about sharing the gospel and discipling new believers as a priority to "ramp up" the need and procedures to reach out as never before because we realize time is slipping away and the work is not done. No longer will procrastination be a part of our thinking. We will work today while it is still the day. The writer of Hebrews called this way of living encouragement when making the most of our day and in Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You may notice that time seems to be "speeding up" all around us. In reality, we have begun to slow down in our thinking and we presume we have all the time in the world. But that is not so. Live each day to the fullest and time will seem to slow back down because Jesus keeps us ahead of the curve in time by making our life count for something through our service to Him.
To summarize. The verse above says that God will "transform you into a new person with a new identity and a new fervor for life." The prayer of that transformed person will look like what the book of James calls a fervent praying person. James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Believe it or not, those prayers will make an impact!! As you can see this life is a process and to make the transformation complete we need to begin "giving our lives to Him!" And then God does the heavy lifting from there on. This is What We Do Now!
The Pilgrimage Continues....
David Warren
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