Do you really want the cookie?
Here
I am, 25 years old, walking through the Publix grocery store with a 5 year old
and a 3 year old in a racecar-shopping cart. They are not mine, but for the
moment I get to take them along for the ride. As I wander about the store with
my list of foods to get, I glance into the cart and notice candies, cereals,
and other assorted items that are both not on my list nor that I placed in the
cart.
“Stop
putting stuff in the cart if you want your free cookie from the bakery!” I tell
the two children as I stuff the unwanted items behind a few loaves of bread.
A hissy fit
breaks out…
Oh.. If only the two of them knew. If they only knew that I
had planned on getting them a cookie, and that this whole ordeal would have
been over a lot faster if they hadn’t brought their own list of things to buy!
Why do children make it so much more difficult than it needs to be!
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore,
I urge you, brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. 2
Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s
will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Last week we talked about what it
meant to be a “living sacrifice”. This week, as we dig into verse 2, we begin
to understand why.
God is calling us out, asking us if
we really want that free cookie. He is telling us to open our eyes to the big
picture, the picture of His “Good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
If I could only have put into words
for those 2 children the thoughts I had, if only their little minds were truly
able to comprehend what the big picture was, they would have stopped, put on
their big kid pants and enjoyed the ride and a free cookie.
If God was to speak to you through
this, I think He would say this…
“I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper, not to harm. Put
aside your grocery list, put aside your will, your desires, die to them, be a
sacrifice for me and see the big picture. Eternity is waiting, waiting for you
to stop holding up my will, my desires, my heart, my plans, my vision, and my
world with your small minded, little selfish picture of a plan. Just STOP! Die
to yourself and know that what I have in store for you is far better than
anything you can add to the cart. What I have in store for you is not eaten,
not worn away, not consumed, not effected by time. It is “everlasting to
everlasting” Now be mine, be my beloved living sacrifices and help me
accomplish the goal at hand. I promise, it will be worth the cost…”
