“God brings the best out of me”

READ: Rom 9-12

Topic: To have a life and more abundantly

SCRIPTURE:
The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest.
Embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it."
But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen.
Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him.
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.
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.


OBSERVATION: Trusting God with my whole being – embracing Him with everything I have; then I will come to know Him and what He wants for my life. He will become rich in me and bring out the best in me. I will be like a tree planted by the waters, bringing fruit to those in need. I find my meaning in Him when my attention is fixed on Him. Part of His body I become fruitful, I become truly me. I don’t compare myself to others, I’m uniquely made – made to be me, made to fit in the Body. Embracing what God does for me is the best thing I can do for Him.

APPLICATION:
Fix my attention on Him and embracing what God does for me.


PRAYER:
“Thank You Lord for the privilege! Thank You for Your heart Lord that breathes in me. Thank You for Your strength. I pray God for Your strength to do Your will always. I love You, in the Name of Jesus, Amen.”