Monday, April 28, 2025
New Testament Reading Plan: Acts 6
I can’t think of better verses to call us into the life-changing journey of following Jesus:
Romans 12:1-2
1 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. 2 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.
The idea of “giving our bodies” to God might seem a bit extreme, but following Jesus is an all-in proposition. Paul the apostle spent the first eleven chapters of Romans describing how dead we are in our sin and how God provided Jesus as the only solution to our dead-ness.
The question is, do you believe this?
Do you believe that there is nothing you can do on your own to make yourself right with God? And if you do, do you also believe that the only remedy for your sin is to trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for you?
Even after I received the free gift of God’s grace, I thought God ought to be pretty happy with what I was bringing to the table. I knew a lot about the Bible, I was prepared to tithe on my gross income, and I wanted to tell everyone about how Jesus had changed my life (a lot!). It wasn’t until I sat under good teaching every week at church and got into a discipleship group, which included long periods of prayer, that I began to realize how incapable I was of doing this “following Jesus thing” on my own.
We can easily fall into the habit of adding Jesus on top of our lives instead of submitting to his Lordship. Thankfully, as we grow in our spiritual practices and maturity, we learn the importance of putting God first in all things.
Try starting your day in prayer, acknowledging Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Ask him to open your heart to his Holy Spirit and make you available for his purpose. And then trust that God will lead you as he surrounds you with his love and care.
Questions:
Are you honest with yourself about your absolute inability to make yourself right with God? Do you believe Jesus is the only solution for your sin?
Next Steps:
Acknowledge your sin and inability to overcome it on your own. Submit your life, all of it, to the Lordship of Christ. Find a group of people who are headed in the same direction, and spend time with them. Learn together what it means to offer yourselves as living sacrifices to God.
Prayer:
My Lord, Jesus, how thankful I am that you called me to follow you. Saying “yes” was not easy, but following you has cost me more. I thought I had counted the cost, but I couldn’t begin to know. Now I wouldn’t change that decision for anything. Losing my life to you has brought me new life, a life of love I could never have imagined. Help me hear your voice and call upon your strength to accomplish your purpose in my life. In your beautiful name I pray, amen.
Series Theme Verse:
John 8:31-32
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This post was written by Lauri White, an Oregon attendee, and a regular contributor to the Daily LivingItOut.