Beholding...
Many of you remember our dear friend Sara Nava who is now twirling her baton in Heaven. I recall a story she shared about the big picture window in her living room. Whenever she looked out this window, it framed a beautiful view which caused her to praise God. This came to my mind when I read on page 183, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship" (Romans 12:1). In view of God's mercy. This is our beautiful framed view. When we behold this, what follows should be the response from our hearts to offer up ourselves and worship.
Becoming...
The point in these becoming sections is PRACTICE. We will become as we continue to practice and establish a pattern. Back in chapter 9's blog post, I discussed how bad habits can start out harmless like a subtle trickle of water that over time can carve into a deep canyon so we need to be aware and stay alert. During our discussion that week, my mother-in-law brought up that we can also look at that analogy from the other angle: having good habits such as reading the Bible daily, over time THAT becomes a nice deep groove that you won't stray from. Praying is another thing that takes practice to establish a pattern. Beginning on our honeymoon, Rex and I decided to close each day in prayer and 25 years later, we still pray together every night. Our spiritual becoming is not passive. We need to actively and deliberately make choices to take a break from our work and other distractions to form a pattern and practice beholding Him. Have you carved out some good spiritual habits?