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Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. 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.


Probably the most powerful remedy to cure a little bit of self-indulgent-pity-party is to put yourself out there far far far away from your cozy comfort zone to help out others. Sometimes when you feel that your life is lacking in areas you think you should be abundant in, or there are things you are disappointed about, or you think you're entitled to something you don't have, it's easy to get extremely inward focused. It then becomes all about self self self and the terrible self-destructive downward spiral begins... and it gets ugly. It gets ugly because it's so horribly self centered making it hard to find the heart of Jesus for the world and for others because you're only really thinking about yourself and your own needs.

Go get out there and pick up someones kids from school if they can't do it; rake someone's leaves when they're too sick to take care of it themselves; make someone a meal; take a lonely soul out for a cup of coffee. Keep it simple and practical, but get your hands dirty helping people and I promise it will cure your self-pity-party in about five minutes. You will be changed for the better. He will always take care of you so go and take care of others.
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