All of Me for All of You

September 6, 2022

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 NLT

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

A strategy most of us have tried repeatedly that never works is compartmentalization. We attempt to divorce parts of our lives from the others and yet have an integrated, whole, and satisfying life. But life was not meant to operate that way. Our relationships, work, worship, hobbies, habits—everything we are and do impacts another.

That’s why God takes pains to make sure we are aware that our only acceptable way of living is fully embracing that He wants all of me for all of Him. Every version of Romans 12:1-2 explains the principle so anyone can understand. This kind of surrender can never come from a life divided in pieces with off-limits areas. When I surrender my entire life to the ownership of God, I give Him the right to use every part of it. This is completely unworldly. It is not the natural way of thinking. We don’t realize it because we have been so shaped by our environment and associations that we think opposite of the God-life. But through my surrender He transforms me from the inside out. Even my thinking is different. My entire life becomes worshipful service.

We get it backward. We want to know God’s will and then decide whether we will do it. We will never know and experience God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will in that manner. That’s the height of immaturity, especially considering all God has done for us. When I quickly respond to what He wants me and ALL Jesus followers to do, serving Him and people with my whole heart, in every situation, the specifics will become clear. I will find myself fulfilled, becoming my best self, living my best life, and fully pleasing Him.

• Jesus, You gave all of You for all of me. I want to do that for You. I know as I do, I will serve You and others in a manner that meets needs and transforms me into who You created me to be. Amen.