ROMANS 12//Spoken Word//Stephanie Williams

by Stephanie Williams (adapted from NIV and MSG translation)

So here is what I want you to do…

With the help of the One who was, who is and who will always be: Take your life, not just a part, but all of your being. Set it up as if on an alter as an offering.

True sacrifice means you pay a price to leave all that you are before his throne.

Giving it back to Him ‘cause it’s not your own.

What He did for us we need to embrace, leave behind what brings us disgrace. His blood has covered all of it. Giving our lives back to our King makes sense of all these words we sing.

But this world is pulling, straining, fighting to keep it’s grasp on what needs to become your past. Your future is in a mind renewed, fixed on a prize you will never lose.

Let God change your life, the way you think, from the inside out, transformed under His authority, with rearranged priorities, an increased clarity no matter the complexity.

Listening to God is a community goal, we listen for each other with all our heart and soul. 

Then you’ll know what he wants you to do, He is the one who will bring out the best in you.

We’ve often heard this said before, we’re familiar with this metaphor. That each body is made up of so many parts, eyes, ears, toes, heart. Each part finds it’s meaning as a part of the whole. No part alone can shoulder it all, could alone get up from a fall.

Let’s go ahead, be the part we were made to be.

See if we are the eyes see, hear if we are the ears to hear, preach if you are the one to preach, teach if you are the one to teach, if you serve, just serve, don’t take over. If you lead just lead, be happy as the mind and not the shoulder.

Cause the shoulder is needed when it is called on to respond, but so often we fail to see the bond of how each mind needs the shoulder and each shoulder the hand, why can’t we just understand how little it does when we compare, except bring judgment when love should be there.

We are all siblings of another kind.

God’s mercy and grace tend to bring a different bind. He binds us together with an agape love, the kind that I am speaking of, it comes from the center of who you are. Love deeply, sincerely, truly. Don’t fake it. Be real… in a place where there is a temptation to be an imitation of what you think you should be, set your self free.

Be friends with the nobodies, because they are actually somebody.

Somebody who needs love just as much as you. Somebody who has experienced pain… like you. Somebody who has messed up, just like you. Somebody who needs forgiveness… like you. Somebody who is walking this road, right next to you. Look around, none of us have it all together, not without the covering of our Savior.

So don’t burn out, keep your passion for the Lord fueled and aflame.

Expect God to show up when you call on his name. Don’t quit in hard times, just pray all the harder, lean on one another, and come through for your sister and come through for your brother.

Don’t settle for the ordinary, strive for the extraordinary. Give back to the Lord the life you have been given and get ready for the adventure that you’ll be living.

You belong here in this community.

I pray that you come together in unity, in the name of the One who was, who is and who will always be. AMEN.