I’d like to give you a practical suggestion that may be helpful for your own devotional life.

In Romans 6:17 Paul tells his readers this: “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.”

The suggestion is to make it personal by making Paul’s words YOUR words and by putting them into the first person, like this: “But thanks be to God that, though I used to be a slave to sin, I have come to obey from my heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed my allegiance.”

When you do this, you are applying a God-honouring idea to yourself, and are encouraging yourself to think and live in a God-honouring way.

Read it again in the first person, slowly:

“But thanks be to God that, though I used to be a slave to sin, I have come to obey from my heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed my allegiance.”

Say it a few times so you have it locked. Or jot it down so you can carry it with you as you go about your day. Keep saying it. Let it shape your thoughts.

Not only does God give us words to pray, but words to say, as we journey in the way of Christ.

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Notes:

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.