"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, MSG).
I want to be changed from the inside out, Lord. Not just some temporary fix! I want a renewed heart that beats with your love. No longer a heart of bitterness but a heart of possibilities—no longer a selfish heart but one that rejoices in the abundance of knowing you—these are the cries of my heart. I place my life before you today, Lord, and I choose to be an offering. I embrace all you have for me. I will face this day with the anticipation of your guidance, and also with the promise of your strength for what lies ahead. Make me open to all you wish to pour into my life so that I might grow spiritually in understanding the depths of your grace.
Without spiritual maturity I have no emotional and mental stability. I am like a ship on the sea with no anchor to hold it securely. Subject to every circumstance that arises I am tossed in the storms of life with no lasting peace. My mind is so self-absorbed I have no purpose but worry and fear. My ears are attuned to the accuser's voice instead of your voice which lovingly convicts and encourages me. But if I learn your truth and apply it instead of allowing “self” to rule my life—if I focus on you instead of any circumstance and seek to be stronger as a result—if I choose to allow you to mold my attitudes and purpose, I will be changed from the inside out. You will rescue me from the drowning waters of my own making, and will set me upon the solid rock of your truth. Your peace will anchor me safely through the storms that always come. Your joy will spring up like a fountain always offering a fresh perspective. Your strength and power will always be there to rise above any circumstance or temptation. Lord, I pray to always learn the lessons you wish to teach and respond to each without hesitation. I choose to grow and change. I choose to not remain on a level of spiritual immaturity that will ultimately destroy the life I have found in you.
You are the potter, Lord, and I am clay for you to shape as you desire. You are the searing heat in life which fires me to completion. If I surrender every part of my life, you will bring out the best in me. I place myself in your hands to be created and transformed to your desired purpose. I am not my own. I belong to you.
Lynn Hampton Lacher
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