(Romans 12:2 MSG) 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.

• The best you can give to a relationship is the God Best You.

(Proverbs 4:23 NLT) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

(Proverbs 14:12 NIV) There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

(Matthew 5:8 MSG) “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

(Matthew 19:3-8 NLT) Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: "Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?" "Haven't you read the Scriptures?" Jesus replied. "They record that from the beginning 'God made them male and female.' And he said, 'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together." "Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?" they asked. Jesus replied, "Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.

Who we are in Him

Who He created us to be

(Hebrews 10:16 NIV) ... I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.

(Daniel 1:4 NIV) young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.

(Daniel 1:6-7 NIV) Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Hebrew -Daniel: "God is my Judge"

Babylonian - Belteshazzar: "lady, protect the king"

• Confused identity

Hebrew - Hanaiah: "Yahweh has been gracious"

Babylonian - Shadrach: "I am fearful of God"

• Distorted spirituality

Hebrew - Mishael: " Who is what God is"

Babylonian - Meshach: "I am despised, contemptible, & humiliated"

• Wounded emotions

Hebrew - Azariah: "Yahweh has helped"

Babylonian - Abednego: "Servant of Nebo"

• Redirected purpose

1. God is right & I'm wrong.

• Let the One who designed me define me.

(Psalm 139:13-16 NLT) You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

2. See God for who He is

• See God the right way

(Psalm 139:17 NLT) How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

3. Give God permission

• Let God write His name on your heart.

• Heal your heart

(Psalm 139:23-24 NLT) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, ....

4. Invite God into my future.

(Psalm 139:24 NLT) ... lead me along the path of everlasting life.