Fighting the temptation to be like everybody else - Romans 12:2

SCRIPTURE: Romans 12:2 (The Message)
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.

A STORY:
The old country boy was walking along a dusty Louisiana road. He was wearing his Sunday suit and his Bible was tucked under his arm. A friend stopped him and asked, “Bob, whar you goin’” “I’m goin’ to Nyawleans (New Orleans),” Bob answered. “But Bob, it’s only Wednesday and you’re wearing your Sunday suit and you have your Bible.” “Listen,” replied Bob, “I heard that in Nyawleans there’s drinkin’ and there’s gamblin’ and pretty girls and partyin’ and iffen all that ‘s true, I jest might stay through Sunday.”

AN OBSERVATION:
Let’s be honest … it is extremely easy … too easy … to become well-adjusted to the world that surrounds us. So easy that we simply begin to shape our lives and our thinking by the norms of the society in which we find ourselves.

FOCUS … Isn’t that what the football coach drills into his team just before taking the field. If we keep our focus on God then living in a world that surrounds us with all kinds of temptations is going to be easier than we can imagine. It is just keeping the focus.

I don’t about anyone else, but the first area for my focus is the weekly calendar. Oh, how easy can this thing or that begin to dominate the activities for the week and before I know what has happened … the week is totally out of focus and I have bowed to the “demands” of the world. Have you discovered the same thing in your life?

Yield not to temptation is a lot easier to sing about than to follow.

PRAYER:
Become our coach today. Keep us focused on that which is important. Help us to dedicate our calendar and the hours that it represents to your glory and to the work of the kingdom. Keep us from yielding to the many temptations that call for our attention. And, we ask this all through the precious name of Jesus. Amen