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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12: 1-2 New international version (NIV)
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (NLT)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross
Philippians 2: 3-8 (NIV)
God changes everything for a reason
Loving others like Jesus can and will look different for everyone.
Whatever you are filled with is
whatever spills out when you are full
God does not want to wait to work in the lives of teens- God wants to work in us now, right where we are.
Each one of us has a mission from God, to follow God and to love others, and the more we do that, the more God will transform us. But we can trust that the transformation will always be for good.
When we follow God, we have the best version of our lives because God knows what is best for us. So no matter what your age or how long you’ve known God, remember that there is always something new that God can teach you when you trust him.