By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I used to live on a sheep farm. I know, that’s a random fact, and one most people would be shocked to learn about me, but it’s true. When I was a little girl, I lived in a farmhouse with a sheep farm setting directly to the left of the house. Some of my favorite memories as a child are of me coming home after school each day and helping feed-up (what we called feeding the sheep). Although there was nothing particularly special about a flock of sheep, I loved taking care of the lambs. Often, a mother sheep would reject a lamb, and I would get to feed the lamb bottles and treat it like my very own pet/baby, and I loved it.

I guess that’s why I’ve always been able to picture Christ as the Lamb of God, like He’s called in the Bible. Yet there’s one name I’ve never been able to understand – the Lion of Judah. In my mind, those two things don’t mesh. I struggle to see how Jesus can be both a lamb and lion, and I can’t help but wonder if others also struggle with this same dilemma. But then, maybe that’s why so many people struggle to fully trust God. We can easily picture Him as the gentle, passive lamb, but we can’t imagine Him roaring like a lion over our lives.

Stop and think about it. What does a lion do? He’s fierce, he protects, he defends, he hunts, and he provides for his tribe. A lion is the exact opposite of a lamb. A lamb is calm, gentle, and loving, which is why we always hear Jesus referred to as the Lamb of God. He loves us so much, He willingly gave His life for us on the cross. He sacrificed His life so that we might live. Yet sometimes, we need more than a lamb in our lives. Sometimes the problems of this world become too much to handle and we need a fierce, protective lion to roar over our lives.

When we hear the doctor’s prognosis and we wonder how we can fight the disease, we need a lion. When a spouse walks out and we wonder how we’ll survive the heartache, we need a lion. When more bills come in than we have money to pay, we need a lion. When a problem comes out of the blue and we don't know what to do, we need a lion. And when we think we’ve reached the limit of what we can handle, we need a lion.

God is a mighty, ferocious lion who infuses us with His strength and courage and rises to fight for us when we allow it. When bad things happen in our lives, far too often, we don’t turn to God because we picture Him as a gentle lamb who can’t do anything about our problems. But that’s NOT true! God wants to fight for us and come to our rescue, but He won’t force Himself on anyone. He loves us too much to do that. It’s why He gave us freewill. He gave us the choice to run to Him with our problems or away from Him. It’s only the ones who seek God in the midst of their suffering that can thrive despite the problems life throws their way.  

There are countless times in the Bible when something bad happened to a person and he cried out to God, and God fought for him in a way we dream about. My favorite story like this is found in 2 Chronicles 20 when several nations declared war on Judah. Terrified, the people came together and fasted and prayed for God to intervene. Verse 12 says, “For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” In verses 15-17 God responded back by saying, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s….You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.”

God longs to do the same thing in your life. He hasn’t changed. He’s still the same God of the Bible. His power hasn’t diminished, and He hasn’t used it all on other people. He’s just waiting for you. All you have to do is come to Him, trust Him to work, and keep your eyes on Him no matter what the circumstances of your life look like. You may not get the answer to your prayers in the way you hoped, but I guarantee you’ll see the Lion of Judah come and roar over your life.

“The Lord roars from Zion…and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to His people.” ~ Joel 3:16

*If you missed last week’s devotion in the series “Learning to Thrive,” read it by clicking this link: http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog/god-are-you-there


© July 31, 2014

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I’m an avid reader. I always have been. Growing up, I had a number of books I loved to read. From The Boxcar Children and The Babysitters’ Club to Number the Stars, I read a variety of books, and one of my favorites was a book by Judy Blume entitled Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. For those unfamiliar with the book, it’s about a twelve-year-old girl who wonders how you can tell if God really exists and if He cares about what happens to a person. Although it’s a deep topic for a young girl (I read it when I was eight), life has taught me that many people ask the same question numerous times throughout their lives, including Christians who already know the answer.

Life is not easy, a fact we all wish wasn’t true. Yet I’ve realized something over the years as I’ve read countless books. The good stories, the ones we’re drawn to, are the ones with a great deal of drama. It’s the stories of problems, hardship, and impossible odds we find ourselves drawn to. No one wants to read a book or watch a movie where nothing happens. We want stories where people rise above challenges and overcome major obstacles. And we want this because it gives us hope – hope that it can happen for us, in our lives. But then, that’s what thriving is. It’s not possible to thrive if you haven’t faced adversity. Merriam-Webster defines thrive as “to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.”[i]

I can hear you thinking, “Great! Then how do I get there??? How do I move past the adversity and get on to the thriving part of my story?” I’ll let you in on a little secret, one which took me years to understand.

Just look at Joseph. God gave him a dream to be a famous leader long before the dream became a reality. As soon as he had the dream, his brothers threw him in a dried-out well, sold him into slavery where he was tempted and then falsely accused of raping a woman, which then led to him being thrown in jail. Talk about adversity! Yet Joseph didn’t give up on God. And therein lies the secret to thriving in the midst of adversity.

One of the easiest things to do during times of hardship is give up on God. We think because life isn’t easy God has given up on us, so we’re going to give up on Him. Yet that’s the worst thing we can do. Just because circumstances don’t look the way we want them to doesn’t mean God’s abandoned us. In Genesis 39, the writer says four different times “the Lord was with Joseph.” I think the writer did this because he wanted us to see that God is always with us working in our lives, in the good and the bad. 

Thriving isn’t always flashy miracles. Sometimes, we thrive the most when things make the least amount of sense. The greatest act of worship is trusting God when our lives are falling apart. This world is chaotic. It’s quickly deteriorating, and people are desperate for hope for a better tomorrow. Who better to tell them than one who’s been through adversity and come out stronger and better because of it? God is the only One who can turn the drama of this life into a story of triumph. But we can’t have that if we’re unwilling to trust God.

With every problem that comes our way, we are given the opportunity to believe God – to believe He is who He says He is, that’s He’s with us through the ups and downs of life, that He cares, and that He’s working it all out for our good and His glory. But with every opportunity to trust God, we are also given an invitation to disbelieve Him. Sadly, most people take the easy road – disbelief. Yet when we choose to stand firm in our faith, that’s when God starts to show off.

Thriving isn’t easy, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it’s one of the hardest things you will ever do, but it’s worth it! So your life is hard and filled with adversity? It just means you’ve got the makings of a great story.

Now what are you going to do about it?

“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” ~ Hebrews 11:6 (MSG)

© July 23, 2014

*If you missed last week’s devotion in the series “Learning to Thrive,” read it by clicking this link:  http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog/wipeout 


[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thrive

By Josie Siler

Scraggly. Scrawny. Sickly. Near death. Hopeless. No, these words aren’t describing me, though they easily could have a year or two ago. These words are descriptive of a plant my mom and I planted at my house. We surveyed the entire yard looking for the perfect place to plant a grouping of four plants that would grow and bloom into beautiful flowers.

At last we decided the perfect place for their new home was around a tree next to the driveway. I was looking forward to watching them grow and waited for the day I would pull into my driveway alongside their beautiful flowering faces.

Gardener that she is, my mom warned me that they would need extra water. The roots of the tree they were growing around would take most of the moisture. Every day it didn’t rain I watered them. I excitedly watched them grow. Well, most of them. There was that one that looked so sad, I didn’t think it would make it. In fact, I was pretty sure it was dead, or nearly dead. I would have put money on it, if I was a gambling type of gal.

I proudly snapped a photo of my first growing things.

See that little pile of death in the corner? The other three plants look lovely, as well as the plant in the back that was already growing there.

Have you ever felt like my sickly plant? All around you are people who are thriving. They’re bright and strong and healthy. You’re hardly noticeable, quietly dying in the background. I get it. Trust me, I’ve been there. I’ve felt like that. I’ve thrown myself grand pity parties where I was the guest of honor.

Do you remember the story of Jonah? Jonah did his best to run away from God’s plan for his life. After being swallowed by a really big fish and vomited up a few days later, he grudgingly obeyed the Lord. When he was done, he “…prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2, ESV).’”

Grouchier than one of the seven dwarves, Jonah went out of the city and settled himself in a place where he could watch the wrath of the Lord descend upon the city. As he sat in the hot sun, God caused a plant to grow up and shade him. Jonah was very glad about that plant, but the next day, God caused a worm to come attack the plant and it withered. Jonah got so mad he wanted to die. Really, he was angry to the point of death. Talk about a pity party!

God questions Jonah in verses 10-11.

That’s the end of the chapter, and the end of Jonah’s story. I can criticize Jonah all I want, but the truth is, I’ve walked in Jonah’s sandals. I’ve watched God have compassion on others and shower them with his love while I sat in pain and wanted to die.

If that’s where you are today, I want to tell you there is hope! Our God is a God full of surprises. Keep walking in truth. Be faithful to God. In the midst of your pain, put an end to your pity party and submit your life to the loving hands of your Creator. I know this is extremely difficult to do, but when you do, you may be surprised at what happens. 

God loves you. Remember His compassion on Nineveh? Remember Jonah’s words about God? He really is gracious and merciful. He’s slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He relents from disaster. He takes what was once dead and breathes new life into it.

Remember my poor, dead plant? I didn’t want to give up on it. I longed for it to live. There is too much death in this world; I couldn’t stand to see that die too. So I watered it. And I talked nice to it. And I willed it to grow.

One day I noticed that where death once reigned, new life was springing forth. A few weeks later, I was surprised by God. I went to water my plants around the tree. As I drew near I caught my breath and laughed with joy. My scraggly, scrawny, sickly, near death, hopeless plant was blooming! As I write this, I glance out my window and see it courageously standing tall, arrayed with a crown of beautiful flowers.

Be steadfast. Be faithful. Grow. Thrive. Be surprised by God!

© July 23, 2014

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Can you picture me surfing? Apparently, my six-year-old nephew can. He’s been asking me to take surfing lessons with him for the past three months. This wouldn’t be so surprising if the boy had never been TERRIFIED of the water. Since the beach is a big part of my family’s lives during the summer, we tried to help him overcome his fear, but we couldn’t get him to even put a toe in the ocean, let alone his whole body. So to give him courage and something to hold onto, we gave him a boogie board.

As I set about the dubious task of teaching him how to use the boogie board, I quickly learned my job wasn’t going to be easy. That first summer, his version of boogie boarding was doing it on dry land. The few times he allowed the surf to touch him and the board were a huge deal. By the next summer, my nephew progressed into the ocean. He was actually willing to go out into the water as far as his knees, which was quite the victory for him. But this summer, my nephew’s fear of water has turned to enjoyment. He is still cautious, but he also enjoys playing in the ocean. On our vacation, the two of us spent most of our time riding the waves. We went deep enough for us to catch some good waves to ride inland, but being that deep also means the waves are big enough to occasionally take you under, something that happened several times to my nephew. Even though I was there to quickly pull him up, I took the opportunity to share some knowledge a friend who surfs once told me.

Surfers teach that when a wave takes you under, the worst thing you can do is panic and thrash around. You have to relax. Eventually, every wave lets you up. The only way to get through it is to relax. If you don’t, the wave can kill you because you’ve spent all your energy fighting and won’t have the strength to surface once the wave has passed.

Although this lesson was meant for the ocean, I’ve found it applies to all of life. Life has a way of way pummeling you like the waves of the ocean at times. Problems arise, sometimes one right after the other, and they can take you under. When that happens, most people’s immediate response is to panic, much like the Israelites did when they sent the twelve spies to check out the Promised Land. Yet they became so focused on the problems – strong men and large fortresses – they allowed their fear to control them. Numbers 13:28-33 says the spies exaggerated and distorted the truth when describing the Promised Land to the rest of the Israelites. Rather than telling the truth, they said, “the land devours its inhabitants, and its men are so large we became like grasshoppers in their sight.” And because they took their eyes off the greatness of God and focused their attention on the greatness of their problems, the Israelites lost everything. They went from being on the precipice of having a land and home of their own to wandering the desert for forty years, where they were forced to endure hardship and death.

I can’t help but wonder how many of us have done the exact same thing. We hear the tests’ results, see the exorbitantly high bill we know we can’t afford to pay, and feel the sting of rejection when a spouse leaves us and we just crumble under the weight of it all. We become so focused on the problems we forget that the God who brought Jesus back to life after He was dead for three days is on our side.

God wants to do a miraculous work in your life. He wants you to thrive in a lost and dying world. He wants you to overcome the problems you feel are just too big to rise above. He wants to change your life BUT you have to let Him.

The choice is up to you. Are you ready to thrive?

“So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. God always keeps His word.” ~ Hebrews 11:22-23, MSG

*If you missed the first part of the series “Learning to Thrive,” read it by clicking this link: http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog/fight-flight-or-freeze

© July 16, 2014

By Kathy Sebright

Our family of four was in crisis mode tending to only the most critical of wounds, which happened to be our one-year-old son, Emmett. Everything else was prioritized accordingly and tossed to the back-burner, including our marriage, until everything we piled up back there and forgot all about threatened to pull us apart.

Out of the blue, my husband suggested we go out for what would be the first time since our son Emmett’s first seizure and the harrowing turn of events that followed. It also just happened to be less than two weeks before Emmett’s first skull surgery. While we waited for a table to open up, we wandered into the shoe section of a department store. Totally exciting, I know! I was mindlessly walking through each aisle when the thoughts I had been working so hard to keep out infiltrated my mind. What if he has a seizure on the operating room table while they are cutting him open? What if he doesn’t wake up? What if I never see him alive again? Surrounded by flip flops and other unassuming shoppers, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. “I don’t want him to die,” I blurted out in a voice entirely too loud for Friday night department store shopping. I tried to hide my face from the curious onlookers as the tears began to fall. My husband put his arm around me and I began to cry even harder. “Get me out of here; I don’t want to be here; I have to get out of here,” I gasped through sobs. My husband grabbed my hand and started a half walk/half run towards the nearest exit, while people stared after us. When we got out to the car, I sobbed into my purse until all of the makeup I had worked so hard on streaked into one big messy pile upon my face. “So much for a nice night out,” I thought. I just wanted to go home. I wanted to touch my sweet baby’s head, see him asleep in his crib, and know that he was ok. We gave up on dinner and hightailed it back home. Even though the night hadn’t gone the way we intended, we were brave enough to try.

Nobody tells you the effect that a diagnosis will have on your marriage. Of course, it impacts your daily life, your faith, your schedule, your finances, and you personally as a parent, but your marriage? For me, that was completely unexpected. A diagnosis can drive a deep and immediate wedge right in between you and your spouse – the slow, drifting apart that you’re too stressed to care about at first, but then, stop noticing and it can finish off your marriage altogether. There is a higher divorce rate among couples with special needs children. There are many different theories as to why: the extreme rollercoaster-like ups and downs, disappointment over the way the other has handled the situation, the constant stress and worry about the future, the astronomical cost involved in taking care of your child, and most importantly, disagreeing about medical treatment for your child, which can rip to shreds even the most loving of couples. Take all of that emotional baggage and then add to it the regular, ho-hum, every day demands of a marriage and it is no wonder why we feel ready to break at any moment. This is really, really hard. The life you knew, gone. The marriage you thought you had, on the brink of destruction. 

It’s hard to prioritize your marriage when you are knee-deep in this life. If you have a special needs child – money, schedules, medical needs, and a babysitter that you can feel confident in all became an issue, among other things. It seems ridiculous to be concerned with a date night when there are serious problems you face every day, but what I have realized is that if we are to have any hope of surviving, we need God and we need each other. Our marriage is now as important as ever in the wake of this turmoil. We need to be there for each other and our children. We have to work twice as hard as everybody else to keep this sinking ship that is our life afloat. And although it seems like one more injustice in our lives, it’s important and worthwhile.

You don’t even have to go outside of the house to prioritize your marriage, although it’s nice. We turn off the TV after the kids go to bed and actually talk to one another, and not just rattle off schedules and a brief synopsis of our day in between commercial breaks. Once a week, we do a half hour marriage devotional. It helps us keep God in our marriage, brings up good conversation points, and reminds us that nothing is impossible with Him on our side. We pray together each night as well. We have a date nearly every Friday night. On date night, there is absolutely no medical talk; it is not allowed. We stay in most date nights, but we eat a nice, or not so nice depending on the day we’ve had, dinner after the kids go to bed. We play a game, watch a new movie, have a fire in the backyard, etc. We also try to get out of the house together once a month with just the two of us. It’s not much, but all of that together helps cement the fact that we are in this together. We are intentional about keeping our marriage together, about keeping God in it, and not allowing anymore drifting apart.

I’m here to tell you from experience that your marriage can not only weather the storm but thrive in the storm when you are both committed to making it work. My prayer for you today is that God blesses your marriage/relationship, wherever you are in it.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” ~ Ecclesiastes 4:12

© July 14, 2014

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

This may come as a shock to you, but I’m stubborn, a bit hard-headed, and when pushed, I can be downright obstinate. Call it the Irish in me, but it’s a family trait, as evidenced by my screaming nine-month-old nephew when he doesn’t get his way. It’s one of those traits my family knows we have, and we daily ask God to help us not let our stubbornness get in the way of being the person God created each of us to be. To be honest, I never thought having the tendency to be stubborn was a good thing, that is until I was diagnosed with lupus.

I’ll never forget the moment my doctor told me I had an autoimmune disease and what that meant for me. At first, I was in denial, but as I began to process what I had been told, I went from grieving the loss of my health to turning downright stubborn. I pictured myself acting like a character in one of my favorite movies, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, who wraps her feet and hands so tightly around the legs of the chair she’s sitting in, her teacher can’t throw her out of the classroom. I refused to believe what my doctor was telling me. Now don’t get me wrong. I understood I had an incurable disease and a severe case at that, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t live. My doctor made it sound like I was doomed to live the remainder of my life wishing I would hurry up and die. Yet my stubbornness awakened a sleeping giant within me, and I determined that no person, and certainly no disease, would take away my right to enjoy life. I may not have been given the life I wanted, but I could decide how I was going to use the time God gave me, whether it was ten years or one hundred.

It took awhile for me to reach that conclusion, but I’m so thankful I did. For a time after the doctor informed me I had lupus, everything in my life seemed to stand still. Everyone I knew continued to live as if nothing happened, but for me, life came to a screeching halt. I still went to school, spent time with family and friends, and said and did the things that were normal, but inside, I was frozen in time. Years later, while taking graduate courses on how to counsel people, I learned this is a normal response. We’ve all heard of the fight or flight response, which is the body’s automatic response to stress. Either a person chooses to stay and respond to the situation (fight), or he chooses to run from the problem (flight). But there’s a third response most people don’t know about – the freeze response. This is actually very common among victims of abuse. When an emergency situation occurs, rather than address the issue or flee from it, the person does nothing. The problem with the freeze response is that unlike the fight or flight response, the body has a hard time regulating itself and returning to normal once the emergency passes. It remains in a heightened state of stress and continues to act as if nothing has changed. 

I can’t help but think a lot of Christians are walking around frozen and have no idea they’re spinning their wheels. Unexpected problems arise we never thought we’d be expected to face – the doctor says the tests’ results aren’t good, a family member suddenly dies, a spouse loses his job, or the bills keep piling up. We immediately have to change gears and fight a battle we never wanted to face. Our lives become consumed with trying to deal with this problem. Yet there comes a point, even if the situation hasn’t been resolved, that we must find a way to move past our problems. Otherwise, we’ll only be surviving when God intended for us to thrive. 

So how do we do that? How do we move on with our lives when our circumstances haven’t changed? How do we move past the unbearable grief of losing a child? How do we enjoy life when we have no money to spend? How do we keep going when the doctor says there is no hope? In a word – God. 

I’m not talking about the picture-perfect God we learned about when we were kids in Sunday School, the One who sat in Heaven viewing our lives from afar. I’m talking about Jesus, the One who came to this earth to walk among us, comfort us in our weakness, and pull us out of our despair.  He gave us promises to cling to and apply to our lives, but few of us ever do. We see His promises as something that applies to everyone but us. And so we sit, frozen by our problems and fears, and we never truly understand what it means to thrive. We make it through each day and wonder if it’s even possible to have the abundant life God promised.

Over the next several weeks, we are going to take a look at what it means to have an abundant life and learn some practical ways we can break out of survival mode and begin to thrive. God has great things planned for your life. It’s time to start living!

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” ~ John 10:10

© July 10, 2014

By Josie Siler

Have you ever listened to a song that your soul connected with but your mind didn’t like very much? It was that way for me when I first heard Casting Crowns song “Thrive.” The song is catchy. The words are biblically solid. It’s a great song, except my mind took issue with it. Not the whole song, just the heart of it.

Imagine yourself curled up on the couch listening to the radio. A song comes on that catches your ear, so you start paying attention. By the time the chorus hits, you’re into it. Your heart is singing along to the words … Just to know You and to make You known / We lift Your name on high / Shine like the sun, make darkness run and hide … Oh yah, this is good. …We know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives / It's time for us to more than just survive / We were made to thrive … Wait. What?

That’s when the pain hits. Yes, you were made for so much more than an ordinary life. You were made to thrive. But you’re not thriving. Heck, you’re not even doing a very good job surviving. Stupid song!

But it isn’t a stupid song. It’s a song full of God’s truth. Friends, you were made for so much more. You were made to thrive. It’s time for you, for me, for all of us, to more than just survive. Now is our time to thrive!

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. How does one thrive while living with a chronic illness or caring for someone who is chronically ill?

It all comes down to freedom – freedom from fears and freedom from expectations.

Part of what keeps us in our prison is fear of man. What will others think about my illness? What will people think when I say I’m sick, but I look fine? What will my family think if I can’t keep up with the housework or prepare meals? What if my boss fires me because of my illness? What will the other parents think if I don’t attend all of my child’s activities? What if no one will want to marry me because I am sick? What if my spouse leaves me for someone who is healthy?

Then there’s the fear of the unknown. We don’t know how our illness will progress. We don’t know if it will kill us, or just torment us for the rest of our lives. We don’t know what horrible tests and procedures we’ll have to go through…and once we find out, we live in fear of having to go through them again.

As caretakers, there’s the fear of what may happen. There’s the helpless feeling of watching someone you love suffer and not being able to fix it.

There are so many questions, fears, and what-ifs. When we’re just trying to survive we need to stop, take a step back, and intentionally look to God. It is in Christ where we find freedom – freedom from fear, freedom from the world’s expectations, freedom from the lies the evil one whispers in our ears day after day. It is so important to remember the truth that we find in the Bible.

God’s Word is truth. It’s His love letter to us. In it we find encouragement for today and hope for tomorrow. It is living and active. It does not return void. It is where you will find freedom.

“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” –Psalm 118:5-6, ESV

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” –John 8:31-32, ESV

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” –Romans 8:1-2, ESV

Even if your body is in a prison, your spirit and your mind can be free. You can live in the hope found in Christ Jesus. You can live with joy and peace that come from the Lord. You can know God and you can make Him known to others. You, my friend, can thrive!

Take a few minutes and watch the Thrive lyric video below. Sing your heart out and know that anything is possible. You were made to thrive. It’s your time. Let’s do this! 

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. –Romans 12:1-2, NLT

© July 8, 2014