Friday, September 16, 2011

[anti]conform

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Romans 12:1-2

Renewing is a verb, something that is taking place and in action. Paul tells us in this verse that we are to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind". This is not something that takes place once after salvation, it is ongoing. We are to constantly be renewing our minds. Why?

When we do not renew our minds we will start to think like the world around us. A Christ follower is supposed to act, think, and just be different. Our actions develop from our mind. We do what we think. We say what we think (most of the time). When you feed your mind with things of this world and allow that thought process to begin then your actions will start conforming to the pattern of the world. It relates a lot with your physical life. When you are trying to train your body to run a race, you are not going to feed yourself pizza, chips, soda, alcohol, candy, or do any kind of drug or smoke. No, you will feed yourself lots of water, fresh fruit and veggies, and protein. These things will allow your body to run right so that you can run the race that you have physically prepared for.

This is the exact same thing with our spiritual bodies. Spiritually we need to be feeding our soul the Word of God, words of wisdom, having fellowship with other believers, music that is uplifting, and media that brings us up, not puts us down.

I am not saying that eating junk food is a sin or watching T.V. and listening to "non-christian" music is evil. What I am saying is that whatever you are constantly feeding yourself that will be your result.

From personal experience, if you read my previous blog then you know that I strayed for a while and did things "on my own". I can honestly tell you that the reason I had a hard heart was from not hanging around spiritually uplifting people, feeding myself the lies of my culture (that I had to be a size 0, white teeth, high maintenance, and brand name clothes), I had to be in a relationship to feel complete, listening to artist that were singing everything that was not Biblical but excusing it because they were "creative" and not allowing myself that one on one time with God. The result, a hard heart toward God for who I had become. The results from that partying and pushing myself further away from wanting what God had for me.

My mind was conformed to this world. Yes, I am a Christ follower and was at that time, but I was not renewing my mind. I was not allowing that to be a verb, I was letting it be a past action which does not work when you are stuck in a world that screams the opposite of what God says in His word.

I want this blog to encourage you to realize that yes, we are surrounded by a culture that wants us to do everything but live for what is right. However, if we renew our minds daily with what the TRUE Word of God tells us, then we will begin to see that line that should be drawn and start running the race that we were supposed to start at the moment of salvation.

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good an acceptable and perfect will of God."

Romans 12:2

1 comment:

  1. Def struggle with this. So many things for me like a career, money, a relationship, my flying. So many things try to grab my mind and my love. Past couple weeks I have been trying to turn my focus towards God, everyday making time for prayer and His Word, and keeping a close eye on my passions and desires. So true Machelle.

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