My Day With the Lord

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you.  Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it's level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, (and) develops well-formed maturity in you."

Romans 12:1,2 (The Message Bible)

I love this version of this Scripture.  It is so practical!

"God helping you....." 
We don't and can't do this on our own strength.  "In Him we live and move and have our being."  All that we do, from the time our eyes open in the morning until they close at night, God is helping us!

"Your everyday, ordinary life......"
How many of us want to do great things for God?
How many of us just want to live our everyday, ordinary lives for God?
Scripture says if we are faithful in little, God will trust us in much.  Are you faithful in the little, everyday, ordinary, hum-drum things of life?

Do you curse at the guy who cuts you off in traffic?
Are you the one who does the "cutting?"
Are you Christ-like at the check-out line of your local supermarket or department store?
Are you faithful when no-one is looking?
Are you as kind and thoughtful to the "little" people as you are to the "big" people?
These everyday, ordinary moments are what reveal our character and typically produce our greatest challenges.  I know they do for me!

Sometimes it's easier to do the "great" thing for God than it is to walk out the everyday, ordinary.  Life can be boring, hard, full of trials and drudgery; it's hard to feel "special" when we are walking through those times.

"Your sleeping, your eating, your going-to-work and walking-around life..."
Oh, oh, it's getting personal now.
Do you need God's presence during the time you are sleeping?  Do you have trouble sleeping?  Do you experience nightmares, night sweats, sleep apnea?  Do you need God to help you fall asleep and stay asleep?  Do you long to wake up refreshed, ready to meet the day?

Do you have problems in the "eating" part of your day?  Do you struggle with this?  I certainly have.  Do you need to eat more, eat less, eat healthier?

Are you a loyal and faithful employee?  Does your boss get the time from you that he is supposed to?  Do you "work as unto the Lord?"  Do you bad-mouth your boss or other employees?  Are you around the "water cooler" when you should be at your desk?

Are you sick of picking up one more sock, one more piece of dirty clothing?  Do you find it difficult  planning and fixing one more meal?  Are you weary of the day-in, day-out sameness of your day?
Do you plan your day without taking God's desires into consideration?  Do you ask God to order your steps?  Do you seek His direction?

"Place it before God as an offering..."
Give Him your day; place it all before Him.  Seek His input.  Seek His direction.  Are you open to God changing your plans for the day or do you just "plunge" right in to "get it done?"

"Embracing what God does for you..."
Do you recognize that EVERYTHING that happens to you during your day is ordered by the Lord?  Do you embrace the bad as well as the good?  Do you see God's hand in all?  Do you thank God for His presence through it all?

"Well-adjusted to your culture..."
Are you well-adjusted to the culture of this world or are you well-adjusted to the culture of God's world?  Are you right in among the unbelievers discussing American Idol or Survivor?  If you are, are you able to view them as God does and offer another perspective in a loving and gentle manner?

"Fix your attention on God...."
Let God transform and renew your mind.  Spend time in the word to saturate your mind, so your thinking will become God's thinking.  You will begin to see things with God's perspective and not the world's.

"Changed from the inside-out...."
Unfortunately, people recognize outward change quicker than inward.  But as God renews your mind, you will be transformed inwardly and it will begin to show.  As you walk daily offering your life to God and then responding obediently to Him, people will notice that there IS something different about you.  Most of all, God will know there is something different about you!

"Readily recognize...."
Are you in tune enough with God that you are able to readily recognize what He wants from you and when?  In any given situation that you are faced with, can you hear His voice?  Are your reactions responses to Him?

"Quickly respond...."
Do you quickly respond or do you have to think about it?

"God brings the best out of you...."
"It is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure."  God will continue to draw out of you what He wants to make you Christ-like. He is continually developing His character in you, maturing you so you can be an accurate representation of Him to this lost and dying world.

"Develops well-formed maturity..."
Maturity that shows foresight and forethought, wisdom and character, virtue; experiential knowledge as well as head knowledge.

Wow, this Scripture is rich, full and extremely thought-provoking.  Let God examine your heart in light of this Scripture today.

Lord, I fall short in so many ways, in the little things, the drudgery of every day.  Help me see your hand in everything today.  Help me see you in the moment and give thanks for your presence precisely in that moment.  Thank you for your grace!