Peace and Quiet

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12: 1-2

We started discussing flexibility yesterday, and then today, I discovered that “flexibility” is even a topic under God’s promises.

Life can make us crazy, can’t it? Pulled hither and yon, one direction to another, so fast we lose sight of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad.  A dear friend reminded me today what we need to do when life gets like this. We just need to put on the brakes and STOP. Ask God where He’s leading us, which direction He wants us to go.

Sometimes, that direction may be upstream, against what everyone else is telling you to do. Sometimes, it may be in line with everyone else. But we’ll never know until we ask God, will we?

He wants us to be TRANSFORMED. The Message translates our verse above this way:

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 be 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 

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

It’s that time of year when we start analyzing the goals we set for last year - did we meet them? - and start setting goals for the upcoming year.

Do you set goals?

I admire people who seem to have a plan for everything. One of my cherished friends goes over goal lists with her husband twice a year to keep their family, personal, and professional goals on track. It’s such an admirable trait - and everyone can see the fruits of their efforts.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who can do that. I find it hard to plan a trip to the grocery store - what if something else comes up that’s more important? I guess I have trouble with the balancing act - I tend to be too flexible, I guess.

Flexible and spontaneous. How do those traits fit with today’s verse - if God prepared good works in advance for us to do, then how can we be sure to do them if we aren’t focused on that? Maybe we can still be flexible and spontaneous - as long as we keep our eyes focused on Him and keep the prayer line open for His guidance in all we do?

I don’t have the answers. Just plenty of questions. But I do know one thing - He’s definitely not finished with me yet.

Are you a goal-setter? Do you make plans? Share some of your tips and strategies with us!