← Stay True with Madison Prewett Troutt
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Romans 121 2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So many of us ask God, what is your will? I just wish I could know your will. I just wish I knew the will of God for my life. What is God's will for my life? He's telling you. He's telling you. Offer your bodies your lives as a living sacrifice. What is a sacrifice? You lay a sacrifice on the altar and it dies. It dies. And that's what we are to be. That it is no longer us who live, but Christ who lives within us. That we have crucified our flesh. That we have put to death our preferences, our desires, our dreams. And we have submitted them under the power of God. And we've said, God, here's my dreams, here's my hopes, here's my fears, here's everything I am. I give it to youo. I trust yout, and I'm following youg, giving your body as a living sacrifice. This is one of my favorite ways to approach God. Every day in prayer is I say, God, here I am. I am youm living sacrifice. I give youe all of me, body, soul and spirit. And then I go through the different parts of my body. God, I give youe my eyes. I pray that I would see today what yout want me to see. I pray that my eyes would be light and pure, that I would see people the way youy want me to see them. God, I give you my mind. I pray that I would have the mind of Christ. That I would not think thoughts that are impure and unholy and selfish, God, but that I would have thoughts that are truly honorable and praiseworthy to you. God, I pray that my mind would be governed by the Spirit and not the flesh. God, I give you my mouth. I pray that the words of my mouth would be pleasing to you. That I would speak life and not death. God, I give you my ears. May I be sensitive to the voice of God. May I know your voice more than I know my own voice, more than I know my husband's voice, more than I know my best friend's voice. May I know your voice for your sheep know your voice. And God, may I be sensitive to not only hear your word, but follow and obey Your word. God, I give you my heart. I pray that I would guard my heart above all else, for everything I do flows from it. So God, put just guardrails around my heart and I pray that nothing would enter in that's not meant to. But God, search my heart, and if there's any offensive way in me, remove it. God, if there's anything unclean in me, cleanse me, purify me, make me holy and blameless before you. God, I give you my hands. I pray that I would be the hands and feet of Jesus today. That I would serve others, that I would worship you with gladness. God, that I would use my hands in a way that glorifies you and blesses your children. God, I give you my feet. I pray that I would keep in step with your spirit. That I would walk with the shoes of the gospel of peace. That I would carry the good news everywhere that I go. And I go through this prayer of Romans 12:1. And I say, God, you have all of me today. I belong to you. I am not my own, for I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. This life is not my own. It no longer belongs to me. And I think for too many of us, we see this verse, read Scriptures, and we just take the verse, the parts that we like. You know, we take the parts that we want to apply. We want to know what God's will and God's purpose is. And we want to find the verses that add to that. We want to make a name for ourself and we want to experience the blessings of God. But we don't really want to die. We don't really want to lay our life down. We don't really want to lay down our preferences and our dreams and our own will. And so we feel this wrestle and this tension. But I love this, because these two verses are not a call to behavior modification. These are a call to complete separation from the world. That we are called to be set apart in everything. In our speech and our faith and our love and our conduct and our purity. That everything about us should look different from the world. As it says in verse two, do not be conformed to this world. Do not get in the same flow of everybody else chasing after the things that the world's chasing after. Being anxious and worried about the things that the world is anxious after. We should look so different. And it talks about that in Matthew 6. Do not worry about your life. Doesn't the pagans worry about these things? And really what it's saying is, doesn't Everyone who doesn't know me worry about these things. But for those who know me, you know you have an eternal hope. You know you have eternal life. And so put your hope in me, put your hope in eternity and not in the things that you see or the things of this world. And then in doing that, you will be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And when your mind is renewed, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. And what God's will is is very unlikely that it's in alignment with your will. It's most of the time looking like you're dying to your preference, you're dying to the things that you want for yourself. And this looks so often like for me, where I'm like, okay, right now I really want to go start this thing, or I really want to go buy this thing, or I really want to say this thing, right? I'm feeling defensive, I'm feeling argumentative, I'm feeling angry, I'm feeling offended, whatever the situation must be. And I have to remind myself, no, no, no, Maddie, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. Don't react the way that the world would react. Don't just go spend money like the way the world spends money. Don't just post the things that the world posts. Don't worry, strive after the things that the world worries and strives after. You should look different. And honestly, one of the most practical ways that I can encourage you guys to renew your mind and not look like the rest of the world is by meditating and memorizing scripture. Meditating on scripture and memorizing scripture. It has truly renewed my mind. All of the worries, all of the fears, all of the junk, all of the, like, worldliness and the distractions and the things that I used to think on and meditate on all the time as I began to remove those and replace those with the word of God. It's crazy. It's like as soon as I find myself starting to have like an anxious thought, or as soon as I start, you know, to find myself going down an unhealthy or not good thinking pattern, or I find myself, you know, feeling really frustrated and offended and I want to respond a certain way, I'm immediately reminded of like so many different verses because they've been stored up on my heart. And this is such a call to what it looks like to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Paul is saying, give your body life as a sacrifice, which is not like God. You're a part of my life, which is not like God. You're my Sundays, and you're my quiet times in the morning. This is like God. You have all of me. There is not a part of me that is reserved for anything or anyone else. You have all of me. You're not compartmentalized. You're not set aside for a certain time or a certain mood or when I really need you. You have all of me. You're. You're the God of my relationships. You're the God of my finances. You're the. You're the Lord of my life in my food and diet. You're the Lord of my life in how I view my purpose and calling. You're the Lord of my life, of my time and where I spend my time and what I spend my time doing and who I spend my time with. You are the Lord of my life. You have all of me. It is a full surrender. It is a full submission. And the problem with today's culture is that we want salvation without transformation. We want salvation without true submission. We want salvation without sacrifice. And the Lord calls us to sacrifice to lay our lives down. It says in First John 3:16, this is how you ought to love, to lay your life down for your brothers and sisters, just as he laid his life down for you. That Jesus modeled for us in John 3:16. What does it look like to love? Oh, we want to be a culture who says we want to love. We just want to love. Like, let's just be loving. We all just need to love each other. Jesus shows us what it looks like to truly love, for he is love himself. And it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever would believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God loves us too much to let us perish. That he sent his son, Jesus as a sacrifice to redeem us of our sins and the death that we deserved. He took it on. He gave his life, and we're called to follow suit. And I just want to pray over all of you. God, I thank you so much that you are the perfect example, that you don't call us to something that we can't uphold and sustain on our own. God, that you are the upholder, that you are the perfecter, that you are the sustainer, that you are the finisher of our faith. But God, we're also grateful that we don't have a high priest that is unable to empathize with our weaknesses and the temptations and the struggles and the Russells that we go through. We have a God who understands, we have a God who sees. And we have a God who cares. So God, we're so thankful that you see us in all of the ways that we feel so torn and pulled. And God, you get it. But yet you did not sin. Yet you took on our sin and became sin. So that in you we could be made righteous. And so God, I pray that we would not treat that with contempt. God. That we would run our race with perseverance. God, that we would not look like the rest of the world, but we would be set apart in everything we do. And that you would be the Lord of our life, the God of our lives, that we would give you, all of us, body, soul and spirit. And so, God, I pray over my friends, if there is any part of their lives that they have not fully given to you, would you just reveal it to them right now? How do we give room for you to speak? So would you speak? I want you to ask the Holy Spirit right now. Holy Spirit, is there any part of my life that I have not given all of myself to you? Because we are called to lay our lives down. We are called to give him, all of us. And so I just pray over all of you that your eyes would belong to the Lord, that your mind would belong to the Lord, that your heart would belong to the Lord, your hands and feet would belong to the Lord. That your relationships and money would belong to the Lord. That your future purpose and calling and your current job and would all belong to the Lord. And so God, I pray that over my friends, I thank you so much that when we fully submit ourselves to you and when our minds are renewed, then we can be able to test and approve what your will is. Your good, pleasing and perfect will, your will and your ways are so much higher and so much better than anything we could ever muster up. Figure out, force, control, manipulate, find on our own. For your word is true when you say that those who try to save their lives will lose it. But those who lose their life for your sake will find it. And so, God, may we just lose ourselves and forsake all else for the sake of knowing you. For everything else is garbage compared to knowing the surpassing greatness of you and following you. And so, God, I pray that would be true of our hearts. And Lord, we love you and we praise you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.