Journal Entry – Romans 12:1-3 – Candice Letkeman

Romans 12:1-3

Lectio Divina {Divine Reading}  Read. Reflect. Respond. Rest.

Read

When I noticed that today’s reading was only three verses, I thought, “Only three verses?!  I can read more than that!  I’ll just keep reading until I think I’m done.”  Well that happened to be at the end of verse three.  There is a lot in only three verses.

Reflect

At first, individual words stuck out for me.  Action words like EMBRACING (what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him).  INSTEAD (fix your attention on him).  And before the word “instead”, what we are asked to turn away from, is not to become so well-adjusted to your culture … whatever that culture may be!  And DEVELOPS (God develops well-formed maturity in you) – and to me “develops” is a word that speaks of things happening gradually, which really addresses my sense of impatience.

 Then the last line in verse 3 is where I sat for awhile: “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him”. 

 When I was a kid, sometimes a friend and I would play with the emphasis on words in a sentence (I guess I was a bit of a nerd), and for some reason I started that with this sentence.  Try it and see what it’s like for you:  The ONLY accurate way to understand … The only ACCURATE way to understand … The only accurate WAY to understand …

I wonder if you’ll be surprised at what you hear yourself say.

Respond

I want to understand myself. And it seems that the only accurate way is by what God is and by what he does for me.  I want to know more about that.  And so I can turn that into a question:  “God, what are you?  And what do you do for me?”

Rest

What I hear when I ask those questions is what I can rest in.

Candice Letkeman

Candice is married to Curt and is the leader of the iPray team at Seeds Church.