"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
- Romans 12:1-2
Early this morning, Jopel and I jogged and had our first early morning devotion. It was a great experience, even though it was a real struggle waking up at 4am and shaking the body's defiance to the early task.
We talked about how we may conform to the pattern of this world quite unconsciously. We may not be taking drugs, or doing some really "bad stuff", but the mere fact that we worry about our future too much, or we take blessings for granted, or we do not offer every time and everything we have to God, shows that there are times we obliviously conform to the lifestyle the world dictates to us.
We also meditated on how we are being living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Living in this world, somehow feeling like we're indeed part of it, it is easy to occupy yourself with how to make your lifestyle comfortable and pain-free. In this world full of hurt, people yearn for that care-free living. Christians could be blindly following this pattern, forgetting to sacrifice for God's work and instead put all their heart and hardwork in investing in their careers, future home, etc, that could be pleasing only to the selfish desires and not to God.
The renewing of our minds indeed plays a big part if we want to change how we were. Analyzing our past actions, where they came from, what our purpose were while doing them, and what was crooked with our perspectives could initiate a drastic change in the way we live our everyday.
There were many other thoughts and realizations that made us experience God together this morning. It was a great time reflecting on what God has been doing in our lives individually. Personally, I think that couples should have devotions together. They do not just make you two experience God in a very special way..
They also keep you from being side-tracked and from focusing on the sweety feely emotions.
They remind you that your relationship, yes, even your relationship should be for the Lord, and for the Lord alone.
In everything you do as patners, may it be a fragrant offering to the One who gave you each other.
#RevolutionizingRelationships
How about you? If you're in a relationship, what are the things you do to keep focused on God, so that you would not conform to the patterns of relationships of this world?
No comments:
Post a Comment