Let the Lord All the Way In

There's a reason David asked the Lord to create in him a new heart and renew the right kind of spirit inside him. You can't do it on your own. No matter how hard you try to do things right, you will always fail. Always. Even Paul, one of the greatest leaders in the Kingdom of God, said that when he tried to do right he would do the wrong thing. (Romans 7:21) There is no way we can maintain a pure heart before God on our own.

In order to live righteously before the Lord, we have to submit all of ourselves over to His care. We have to allow the Lord to come in and fill us with His Spirit. We have to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost when He tells us things to do.

When we allow the Lord free reign with all of us, He is able to come and do a work on our inner man. He is able to form new hearts within us and renew our spirits.

Often though, we don't want to give the Lord everything. We'll give Him only so much of us. We put up boundaries to how far He can go with His transformative power.

Jesus showed us that in order to follow Him we had to give it all up. We had to have no allegiance that was greater than the one we shared with Him. When we give Jesus our all, He is able to change us into beings that reflect His grace, power, and love.

Not too many people are walking around looking, talking, and acting like Jesus. Then again, not too many people have chosen to give Him their all either.

Today, ask the Lord to come into all the spaces of your life. Allow your Heavenly Father to take full control and form you into what He knows you can be. Let go of your restrictions and boundaries and watch how God changes you into His image.

Verse of the Day: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Living Sacrifice

In Romans, the Apostle Paul asks believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. To Him, it is our "reasonable service" to live upright and holy before the Lord because of His mercies toward us. (Romans 12:1) In other words, through His matchless mercies, God chose to redeem us and cleanse us from sin through His Son's sacrifice. Now that we are upright before Him, the least we can do is live a life that reflects our inward change.

It's that living sacrifice part that's the kicker. Something that's living is growing, changing, experiencing new things, waking up each day to something new.

Every day we wake up we have to choose to live holy. There is always some new adversity, some new attitude, some new heartache just waiting to knock us off our holiness lifestyle. If we're really honest, there's some old stuff that we come across every day that challenges us as well.

Living a holy life takes work. Pleasing God in all we do is a sacrifice. Our natures want to act nasty, we want to respond in anger, we want to be selfish...

But a life that's been transformed can't live that way. A life that's been renewed by Jesus' love can't live in anger. A life that's been given so much, can't bear being selfish.

We've been blessed to be made righteous and holy in the eyes of God. It's only reasonable that we sacrifice our wants and desires to match the wants and desires of the Lord. Our outer actions should match the inner change that salvation has brought to us.

Are you living holy? Are you reasonably living out your life according to God's mercies toward you? Or, do you need to make some adjustments to your behavior?

Every day we awaken, we have the choice to live holy. Each moment we live is a chance to offer ourselves as willing vessels to our King. Let's make sure that we are not misusing God's mercy towards us. Let's choose to take on God's will of holiness for ourselves today.

Verse of the Day: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1