While God’s love for us is unconditional, the quality of relationship we have with God is conditional. This is evident throughout Scripture. Relationships always have a when-then quality to them. When one thing happens in relationship, then another thing happens in response. This is true of every relationship you have. It is not a theory; it’s a fact. You apply this fact about relationships to one degree or another everyday.
The WHEN in relationships is what you do that elicits the THEN response. Submission is the WHEN that must to be committed—the condition is surrender—in your relationship with God. To experience the life of empowered transformative recovery, you need to beabout the WHEN in the relationship. God THEN will change you into something new.
The truth about even our most loving relationships is that one person or the other is at least slightly dominant in the relationship. Why? Because there is always someone in the relationship at least slightly more interested and invested than the other emotionally. This can be tricky because this truth becomes skewed by the reality that one person in the relationship is at least a little bit more secure about themselves in the relationship than the other. So, the power in the relationship belongs to the least interested party. This does not mean, necessarily, that one loves more or less than the other; it simply means that the one who is more secure, even tempered, and less sensitive will tend to have the power in the relationship.
The question is this: In your relationship with God—Jesus Christ, who has the power?
Considering the power of the least interested party principle, who would you say really has the power in your relationship with God?
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but betransformed 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 (NIV)
NLX 101 breaks down this passage to enable participants to discover the truth about God’s expectations in this conditional relationship. They will learn the clear difference between what God expects from them and what they can expect from God. The focus here is on what God expects from us in this conditional relationship, and what God expects from us is to offer to Him our bodies. Considering the human condition, this is a major sacrifice. After all, “It’s my body!” This lesson, through a series of thought-provoking questions, helps participants to recognize how they can, practically speaking, offer God their bodies in worship to Him. What they actively do with their body from the outside in (the WHEN) is the conditional expectation that must be met in order for God to do what He does from the inside out (the THEN) by the renewing of the mind for a transformative new life experience.