Your milestones

Earlier today on Bellshill Salvation Army Band’s Facebook page I shared some devotions. I’d like to share those devotions with you tonight.

Here’s the dictionary definition of a milestone:

“An important event, as in a person’s career, the history of a nation, or the advancement of knowledge in a field; a turning point.”

Those of us who have ever planned a project, or organised an event, will probably have started with a high level plan where you list the main milestones that must be achieved for the project or event to be successful.

What about if you were asked to write down all the milestones in your life, good or bad, what would you include?

• The day you were born?
• Your first words?
• Your first steps?
• The first day you attended school?
• Your first day at secondary school?
• Graduating from university?
• Starting your first job?
• Your wedding day?
• The birth of your child or children?
• The death of a loved one?

Whatever the milestones you’ve included in your list, I hope one of your most important ones was the day you gave your life to 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.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

If you haven’t accepted God into your life, or you’ve turned away from God for some reason, maybe now is the time for you to add a new milestone to your life – The day you dedicate, or rededicate your life to God.

I would be thy holy temple,
Sacred and in dwelt by thee;
Naught then could stain my commission,
'Tis thy divine charge to me.

Take thou my life, Lord,
In deep submission I pray,
My all to thee dedicating;
Accept my offering today