Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
Romans 12:1-2, The Passion Translation
Happy New Year! As we turn the page from the old to the new year, I hope that your hearts are filled with expectation as to how the Lord will transform and use your life. Just because we are still in the middle of the coronavirus season does not mean that we cannot move forward in the goals and objectives the Lord has for us personally and corporately.
As I have been praying recently, I have sensed that the Lord would have me begin to encourage and spur us toward greater love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24) beginning with the return of regular emails. The format I would like to begin with is a follow up and further meditation upon our Sunday Sacred Reading. Each week as we read, meditate, commit, and comment on our Sacred Reading, I realize that there is so much more the Lord would like to say through His Word.
We begin the New Year with this epic exhortation from Paul the apostle in the letter to the Romans. After describing how the Lord God invited us into a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, he asks his readers, what would be a proper response to this amazing act? There is only one, He gave His all for me, I will give my all to Him!
Each and every day we have the opportunity to give our lives completely to Christ. If you are waning in your spiritual life or your spiritual passion, the start to renewal begins with a complete surrender of ourselves to Him.
So here is your homework for today:
Read these verses a few times and ask the Lord to speak to you about them.
Pray a prayer of surrender and total consecration as your act of worship today.
Expect the Holy Spirit to begin to awaken your spiritual life.
Have a great start to your week!
Love, Pastor Stuart