ROMANS 12 – STILL LIVING IT!

“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.” Romans 12, Message

We cannot LIVE IT on our own. It is God that brings out the best in us. It is God Who must LIVE IN us for us to live the life, the “best” of God working through us, bringing the best of what HE he has created in us to be. 

What IS maturity and what does it look like? We keep telling kids to “grow up” and “act your age”. (I’m still told that, occasionally!) Here is some clarification of maturity and how it’s expressed. Maybe this will help us better understand how to LIVE IT out in our lives, showing others “how to”, as well, by our own lives. You know it when…

Our concern for others outweighs our concern for ourselves.

The presence of evil or danger is detected before it is obvious.

We have more than high ideals; we have discipline to carry them out.

Emotions are tempered by responsibility and thoroughness.

Awareness of needs are matched by compassion and involvement.

There is not only an understanding of a task, but also the fortitude to stay at it until it is done.

There is a willingness to change.

There is the ability to grow spiritually. Continually.

And then, 

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, finish a job once it’s started, and carry money without spending it. 

And last, but not least, it’s the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

Dear Heavenly Father, We find there is way more to being mature in our faith and living it out in this life than we first think. You want us to go deeper still. My desire is to be and do all that it takes…without even thinking about it. By the Power of Your Holy Spirit living in us, help us. In Jesus Name, Amen