Day 12- Romans 12:1 and possibly verse 2

I was incredibly excited when I saw that I got to write on this verse. I think this is one of the most critical verses in our lives as Christ followers, and it has been my favorite verse for close to 10 years now. However, to separate it from verse 2 and I cannot accept it, these 2 verses go together so well and build on each other that the thought of separating them is a crime to me. So we are going to look at both verses, I have posted them in the New Living Translation. In my opinion it makes these verses much more understandable.

"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."

The first thing that jumps out at me as I am reading these verses is the words "And so" or in the NIV "Therefore". I can still hear my youth minister using this phrase, "When you are reading the Bible and you see the word therefore the first thing you need to do is figure out what the therefore is there for." I know it is a little cheesy, but that simple teaching forces me to take these verses and put them into context of the entire book of Romans and it helps us understand what the author was trying to teach.

I would love to spend hours teaching through the beauty of how the book of Romans was written but most of you would stop reading and go back to whatever you were doing before you started reading this blog. So let’s look at what is going on right before these verses. In chapters 10 and 11 Paul is explaining that Salvation is for everyone and that God has poured out his mercy on the Jews and on all people. He is teaching how lucky all people are that God was willing to let his son die to pay the price of our sin and as a result of that mercy and grace being poured out on our lives these verses where written.

Paul is saying look at how amazing God's mercy is, and when you see that you should respond with living your life for him. You life is no longer you own but a life of service to live for God. Then he goes on to tell us that our lives should be different from the rest of the world; because our lives are about living for God and not about living for ourselves. Then God delivers a promise to us as Christ Followers.

The promise that God delivers to us as Christ Followers is that we can know what His will is for our lives. I have talked with a number of people over the last 12 days and they are talking about how they are trying to find out what God's will for their life is during these 21 days. I am excited when I hear from people and tell me "God is calling me to step up and serve at the East Campus". I believe that many are finding one aspect of God's will for their life is to step up and serve. I honestly believe that some of you are searching for God's will and thinking about the East Campus and God is tugging on your heart to go to Africa as a missionary or to quit your job and go into ministry full time. Those things are scarier, but just as important for the Kingdom of God. I pray has not changed over the last week, I pray that you listen for God’s will for your life and that when you hear it you will be open to God’s will.

"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."