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. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, 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. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12: 1-2 The Message
The song, “Make My Life A Prayer to You”, by the late Christian musical artist Keith Green spurred meaningful growth in my walk with Christ. This may be because the lyrics reflect scriptural values.
Romans 12: 1 states “Take your life… and place it before God as an offering.” The lyrics to the first verse of this song echo this sentiment:
Make my life a prayer to you
I want to do what you want me to
No empty words and no white lies
No token prayers no compromise
Expanding on what it means to make our lives an offering, the Apostle Paul offers the following counsel: “Fix your attention on God.”
Later on in the song, Keith points out that often, our eyes are elsewhere. Rather than fixing our eyes and our attention on Jesus, our focus is often upon ourselves, or upon our culture. Our world today offers us so many distractions and options. It does not take much to draw our attention away from the path the Lord wants us to travel!
Here is another part of the song,
Well, I want to thank you now
For being patient with me
Oh it's so hard to see
When my eyes are on me
Application questions arise from these words from Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.
“Do you view your life as an offering to the Lord?”
“Where is your attention fixed right now? Is it upon God or is upon the news of the day?”
“Are you offering the Lord your time and energy, or is it being pulled into areas that do not reflect the Lord’s will?”
The amazing and wonderful thing about God is that when we focus our eyes upon Him, He brings out the best in us. Also, we want our best brought out for Him! The Apostle Paul is offering that fulfilling life to everyone. Our culture may bring us down, encouraging us to focus on our own interest, or the world’s distratctions. Yet following Christ is how we mature in our faith. Is your life a prayer to the Lord?
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for Your word, which is so clear and specific as it speaks to me. Help me to focus my eyes upon You. May I see you clearly always. Protect me from the distractions of life. Keep me from being so busy that I don’t have time to squeeze You in. May the words I speak be words reflecting my walk with You. I pray this prayer in Your faithful name. Amen
PS. Here is a version of the Keith Green song, “May My Life A Prayer to You”, sung by Keith himself…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd9MaBu3gAg Keith Green - Make My Life A Prayer To You (live) Keith Green performing \"Make My Life A Prayer To You\" live from Estes Park '78 You can find more info on www.keithgreen.com If you want to buy this DVD go to the online shop on his website. And if you want to know more about this man and why he followed Jesus look at my profile for the video about his life. www.youtube.com
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