For Reading and Meditation:      Romans 12:1-8The second thing the psalmist learned about himself as he paused in self-examination was this: "I saw myself so stupid and so ignorant" (Psalm 73:22, TLB). There were things he knew which he had foolishly chosen to forget. He forgot that God was in control. He forgot the temporary nature of success and prosperity. He forgot the whole purpose of godly living. He forgot that God always has the last word. If you and I react as the psalmist did to trials, then there is only one thing that can be said about us - we are stupid and ignorant. The third thing the psalmist learned about himself was that he had reacted like an animal - instinctively: "I was a brute beast before you" (Psalm 73:22b). What is the difference between a beast and a human being? A beast lacks the faculty of reason. It is unable to stand outside itself to consider itself and its actions. An animal responds to any stimulus instinctively without any interval for thought. The psalmist had been doing that - he had failed to put an interval of thought between the stimulus and the response. Once he did stop to think, and put the situation in a different context, his negative feelings immediately dissolved. Is not this the value of the Scriptures? As we read them they reason with us. They tell us not to react instinctively to things, but to think them through. They give us a new framework for our understanding, a new context in which to reason. The more we draw our understanding from the Scriptures and learn to think God's thoughts after Him, the more secure and the more effective our lives become. Father, I am grateful that You have made me with the ability to think. My thoughts can lead me astray or they can lead me to You. Help me to draw my thought patterns not from the world but from Your Word. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Psalm 105:5</li><li>Deuteronomy 6:12</li><li>Psalm 50:22</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is a basic human tendency?</li><li>What does the psalmist exhort us to do?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

" be transformed by the renewing of your mind " (v. 2) 

We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually 
members of one another. (Romans 12:5)

We are a part of a Body. Many of our sufferings 
are not on our own account at all. Many of the sufferings of the children of God 
have nothing whatever to do with their own faults or their own failing. They are 
suffering in a related way, they are suffering for the Body’s sake, they are 
entering into the battle; the conflict of this one great testimony. Sometimes it 
is almost uncanny when the Lord has something in view in relation to His 
testimony of Life, how for no reason whatever, on no account at all, we discover 
that we are involved and ours is not an isolated experience. All sorts of people 
all over the place are having the same kind of experience – a terrific sense of 
pressure, upset, annoyance, anything to frustrate – it is happening all round, 
testifying that in the spiritual realm, in the realm of the Spirit, there is a 
fine, sensitive oneness which matters to the Lord, and therefore matters to the 
enemy. 

Do not always take your sufferings as some 
controversy that the Lord has with you. That is the twist the enemy often gives. 
Be open to the Lord to be checked up on anything, but do not always take it that 
the things which are happening to you and causing you trouble and suffering are 
due to your own failure or wrong. You are involved in something very much more 
than that.

This devotional contains short daily portions from a selection of Mr. Austin-Sparks' messages. In his own words, “Perhaps this is just like a window opened into heaven. If you get the right window you can see quite a lot. You can see great things and you can see far things. But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!” Open Windows messages have been selected and compiled by Austin-Sparks.Net from the works of T. Austin-Sparks. In some cases they appear in abridged form. The introductory verse and its associated Bible version have been selected by the editor and did not always appear within the original message.

Open Windows

The Testimony of the Christ - Chapter 7

 The Body of Christ 

We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:5 ESV)










The word or term "Body" is not mere metaphor. The members of His Body stand 
in relation to Christ just as our physical bodies stand in relation to our own 
selves – the means of manifestation, expression, and transaction. This truth is 
very discriminating, and goes to the root of all matters of life and service. 
"Working for the Lord," "praying to the Lord," etc., will be seen to have a 
deeper law which governs their effectiveness. We cannot take up work for Christ 
– plan, scheme, devise, organize or enter upon Christian enterprise 
– and so command the Divine seal and blessing. We cannot pray as we incline, 
even though it be to the extent of passion and tears, and so secure the Divine 
response. Failure to recognize this is bringing multitudes of people to despair 
because of no seal upon their ardent labors, and no answer to their prayers. In 
the unfolding of the laws of His own effective life the Master put tremendous 
emphasis upon the fact that the words that He spoke, and the works that He did, 
were not of (out from) Himself, it was the Father both speaking the words and 
doing the works.


So for all the future of His work He prayed that His disciples might abide in 
Him. Thus the law of effective and fruitful life, service, prayer, etc., is that 
there shall be such a oneness that we only do – but surely do – what He is 
doing. We must know in our spirit just what Christ is doing, how He is doing it, 
the means which He will use, and His time for it. Moreover, our prayers must be 
the prayers of the Lord Himself prayed in us and through us by the Holy Spirit. 
This is surely made very clear as being the realm in which the Church in 
apostolic times lived. This 
will demand a considerable sifting of all undertakings in the name of Jesus, and 
will require that nothing is done until the mind of the Lord has been made 
known. But this will secure a hundred percent effectiveness, and issues which 
will never perish. For the practical purposes of God in this age Christ is the 
One Body holding fast the Head, and the business of every member is to realize 
more and more fully the meaning of this incorporation and oneness of identity.... 
Ours it is to see that we are utterly in Christ, and living by the Spirit. All 
the rest will be spontaneous.

In Christ - Chapter 1

 One-ness in Christ 

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,<cr>1</cr>

Romans 12:4

so in Christ we, though many, form one body,<cr>1</cr> and each member belongs to all the others.

Romans 12:5

 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body,  and each member belongs to all the others.

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

Romans 12:4-5 NIV

Romans 12:4-5 NIV

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