January 11, 2016

“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 … 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 … God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:1-2 says, The Message)

Remember I wrote about translations of the bible, and in that devotion I mentioned “The Message” as one of the translations that I like. The above reading is a good example, because it puts into understandable words, what Paul was trying to get across to us: take what is most comfortable, most ordinary, all of your habits, new and old, and place them before G-d – and then be ready for some change.

What is the main reason we give up on New Habits? I would say it is because our old habits are so comfortable, so well known to us – and we are so easily drawn to that which is most comfortable. Recently I received some gifts – Christmas gifts – a pack of underwear and some socks. Not to get too personal here, but new socks are nice, but there is something that is so comforting about the old pairs. They fit “just right”. And that gives me some sense of comfort. The old is comfortable. But the old can also get smelly and stale. You have to want something better — something new – if you are to follow a new path, or try something new.

Don’t be afraid of the new, the new here being hearing the word of G-d in new ways. The new brings the unexpected and maybe even the uncomfortable, but it also can wake us up from a long, comfortable slumber. And when you find that the new makes you uncomfortable, take it and place it before G-d, who will take it and bring the best out of you.

Pastor Dave