Thoughts...

"For we are not our own masters when we live or when we die. While we live, we live to please the Lord. And when we die, we go to be with the Lord. So in life and in death, we belong to the Lord" (Romans 14: 7-8).

I read this verse today while searching some stuff online and it really stuck out to me. I did not recall reading it before, and I am not sure exactly what it is, so I will just start writing thoughts.

I think I often forget that what I do with my physical self is a huge part of how I serve the Lord. I am often convicted by my thoughts, emotions and words, but tend to look past the things that I do with my physical self. God is the maste of my actions as well as my thoughts and words. This is actualized in the things that I eat, the way I physically treat others in showing them contempt or affection. I think I am really good at using my body language to show contempt towards others, and do not feel any remorse about it because it is not as conscious as words or thoughts. Our whole selves belong to the Lord in life and death. That means everything...the time that we devote to him, the activities that we participate, what we eat, how we exercise, what we think, what we say...and on and on. I am often too concerned about how I look and how others will perceive me based on what I am wearing.

I swear up and down that I don't care about what guys think of me, but I totally have that in mind when I am gettind ready to go out where I will see people. This is actualized twofold now that I am home and the possibility of running in to OLD friends who I have not seen in ages arises. Scripture tells us to be more concerned with what goes on inside ourselves than what goes on outside...as cliche as it sounds. The Bible calls us (Christians) to be in the world, but not of the world...all of this while the temptations of the world are shoved at us incessantly.

Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform any longer to the pattern 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.” (NIV)

This is one of the first verses I memorized in high school and one of my favorites. If we stop trying to confom to the patterns of the world than we can drop that burden and run the race marked out for us. As long as I am a slave to what the wold throws at me I have to bear that buden. I have to carry it on my shoulders everywhere I go and it weighs me down. I know the moments when I am able to unload it. I can tell and feel how it feels to have that weight lifted and those are the most freeing and peaceful moments of my life. That is what I want to feel all the time.

1 Samuel 16:7 - "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (NIV)