God’s perfect will
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. Do not conform 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. Romans 12:1, 2 God calls those who made Him the Lord and Savior of their lives to surrender everything to Him. This is a great test of faith for it is not so easy to obey when God asks us to hand over to Him what we love. It is difficult to give up something we cherish even when we know holding on to such hinders us from totally committing ourselves to God. Another source of difficulty is the fear of getting persecuted or to face mistreatment because of our faith to God. God knowing this, He provided us a great example through Jesus Christ. God handed His only begotten Son over to suffering and death for us. “He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus gave up His glory in heaven and came to earth to take our punishment. The humanity of Jesus was displayed when He was praying in the garden of Gethsemane. We can sense His agony as the hour of His suffering and death approaches. In His prayer, He asks the Father if there is any other way for people to be saved. Yet, in His surrender to the Father’s will, He prayed, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” Christ had provided us a great example that every believer should follow. God gave us a command that if we are His disciples, disobedience is not an option. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). How can we say we are a follower of Christ and yet refuse to surrender “all”? It is not something that we wish or desire we could do. Surrender can mean more than one thing: It can be renouncing control over our possessions or a willing submission to His authority. As Paul said from the text, “in view of God’s mercy,” our response should be to surrender any rights we think we have and to let God have control over our lives. Jesus’ expression of surrender was shown through His willingness to suffer at the cross. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:5-7).”
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
