Can We Get a Gold Star for Our Spiritual Chore Chart?
Do you wonder what it means to “not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind?” I wrestle with this and ponder if I am doing it enough or right? what counts as being conformed? How do I know if I am transformed. I want a checklist to tell exactly what to do me so I can get a gold star and an A in Spiritual Growth.
Do you feel that way? Mystified by some of Scripture and what it means in the day to day-ness of your life?
I love the Message translation of this verse: “Take your everyday life and place it before God as an offering…fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”
I read these words and realize it is not about the “what” – It is all about the “why” of our actions. God isn’t looking for a external checklist but an internal change!
[Tweet “It is all about the “why” of our actions. God isn’t looking for a external checklist but an internal change!”]
That makes it harder is some ways. I have to look at the condition of my heart, the thoughts in my mind which propel my actions. I can’t gain spiritual gold stars by following rules.
God is about heart surgery. Shifting my eyes to Him so my life is a refection of His work in me and through me.
Honestly, sometimes I would prefer the spiritual “chore chart!”
Can you relate? We want to get it right, be good Christian, please the God we love, and make a difference in the world. We just want clear instructions of what that looks like. And into all our “doing” God says, it is about the why behind our actions. Is it an offering to Me or a show for your gold star?
Why requires us to look inward and check out motives, examine our desires and pause waiting for God to lead us, guide us and change us. We shift our gaze from the applause of men to the pleasing the Audience of One.
Suddenly the everydays of life become sacred offerings to the One who offered us the most. We are moved by a desire to serve Him with our words, actions, belongings, time, finances, energy… our everydays.
When we stop trying to get an A for being good and doing the right thing, we can rest in the promise that God is working in us to shape into the vision He had when He created us. We are free to live our everydays as an offering, an outpouring of our love rather than in a chore chart or check list mentality. We give up figuring out how to get it right, and lean into being God’s girl as He changes us from the inside out.
[Tweet “We can live our everydays as an offering, an outpouring of our love rather than with a chore chart or check list mentality.”]
I think this what it means to “not be conformed”- we change our bottom line, it isn’t the world and it trappings, the “what” we do as a measure of our righteousness. Instead our bottom line, the most important thing in our lives, becomes being reshaped by the One who made us righteous and living our everdays from that place. It is all about the “why.”
What does bringing your everyday life as an offering to God mean to you? How can you let go of the pressure to get it right and live in the peace of God changing you from within?
She Reads Truth- Lent 2015-day 10
