ICS Daily Devotions
Not of the World

Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

At some point in your Christian walk, you can be sure that you will be put through the test where it will be revealed what kind of values you truly hold onto. The devil will also put temptation in our path to sway us from God.

Unfortunately, some Christians choose not to be committed to the Lord nor consecrate their lives to Him because they want to be able to operate in business just like the world without the hindrance of Christian values, but then when they encounter difficult situations, they expect the Lord to bail them out.

Holding a high office often causes people to fall away from the Lord, because pride makes them think they can do it alone without God. When we put our identities in our job titles and seek only the affirmation from men, we will disassociate from God, church and fellow believers because we are pursuing the world, and we won’t be steadfast under persecution.

There are indeed people who attain success using the world’s ways, but that is because the god of this age is still the devil. He told Jesus he would give Jesus all that’s in the world if only Jesus would bow down to him. However, if we choose this path, we will have lost our testimony to the world, our example to our children and grieved the Holy Spirit. There are many miserable Christians who have lost all their passion for God due to the lure of the world.

If we don’t make up our mind and heart early on, we will easily compromise when the pressure is on, and when we don’t decide to be separated from the world, we will sow to please the flesh and reap destruction.

Scripture says we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, which means placing ourselves on the altar willingly to serve and live for the Lord. We need to have faith that God has a good, acceptable and perfect will for our lives, then we will be able to make it through the different trials in our lives.

Sermon Series: The Daniels of Today