Autopilot Life – Laura

 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. Roman’s 12:1-2 MSG

We are living in a time when the world would have us panic.  Popular thought would be that we should live in fear.  Negativity and catastrophic events abound today.  How will we choose to respond?  God’s advice would be – get back to basics.

A struggling business owner in today’s economy can increase the odds of success by reverting to what created original success – consistent processes and genuine concern for customers.

A family struggling financially can most improve their situation by going back to basic monetary principles.  Live on a budget and spend less than you earn.  Unfortunately this is easier said than done.

What are the spiritual basics in God’s eyes?  How would God recommend we direct our energies?   We have a choice – work harder or trust more!

As baby Christians, our faith seemed simple.  However, for many of us, we grew up and made it complicated.  We complicate it by failing to continuously surrender.  We complicate it by haphazardly squeezing God into our lives briefly before getting on with our own agenda.

Oswald Chambers said, “The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference.  No, the challenge comes from the missionary’s own personal relationship with Jesus Christ…The one great challenge to us is – do I know my risen Lord?”

God’s way is simple – He wants us to cling to Him, to crave Him.  He wants to be an integral part of our everyday, ordinary life (Romans 12:1&2).

The Bible describes Enoch in Genesis 5:24, “Enoch walked with God…”

In 1 Kings 15:14b it says, “…Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.”

Imagine a life of walking with God.  Imagine life lived with a heart fully committed to the Lord.  Imagine a life where we readily recognize what God wants from us and quickly respond to it.

As you go through this week do a few gut checks:

• Am I walking with God at this moment?
• Is my heart fully committed to the Lord?
• Am I allowing myself to “fit into” the world or fixing my attention on God?
• Is every aspect of my life glorifying God?
• Am I readily recognizing what the Holy Spirit would have me do and quickly responding?

Spend time renewing your commitment to living out the childlike faith that we enjoyed as baby Christians.  Go back to the basics by leading a God-centered life.

Pray as David did in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”