Romans 12:1, 2 Therefore, brothers, I call on you through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

On April 27, 2005 I wrote the first message in this series, about God's directions for appropriate behavior in various situations. So we've been studying this for almost a year. Now we've come to the last one and it's the most important one. Romans 12:1,2 sums it all up together in just two texts. Read it again in the Message Bible translation.

“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 its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1,2

Did you see where the focus is in these texts?

“God helping you”,

“place it before God”,

Embracing what God does for you”,

“fix you attention on God”,

“God brings the best out of you”.

It's all about God. It's not about us, our friends, or our community. It's about giving our desires, wants, actions, words, attitude, everything, to God, keeping our focus on God and letting God make us the best we can be.

In all that we studied this past year, the same theme kept showing up. Let go of pride, humble yourself, be submissive, let God have control over your life. The way to know how to behave or respond to different situations is not to have a memorized list of dos and don'ts. All a person needs is to be willing to give up everything. Humbly submit to God and let Him control every part of our lives.

Take a look at Matthew 22:37-39;

“Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37-39

Notice the order of importance Jesus puts these commandments. There must be a total and complete offering of self and love for God before a person is able to selflessly love others.

The fear, some have, that such a life of devotion to God and unselfish love for others will be a dull life full of drudgery is completely untrue. A life completely devoted to God, given up as a living sacrifice, is a life that is joyful, busy, fulfilling and filled with wonderful memories. God wants the best for us. He wants us to be living at our best. He wants to bring us joy and fulfillment. Sure there will be trials, but He walks through them all with us, drawing us closer to Him. The end result will be a sweeter relationship with our Lord, a greater appreciation for what He has done for us and all He has given us. We will come through each trial victorious and filled with joy as long as we let Him walk us through them. I can say this with confidence because I have personally experienced this in my own life.

Your life will be much richer if you give it all to Jesus.