Conforming
In our day, it is easy to succumb to the daily monotony of life. The subtleties that squander our time, consume our lives, entertain our minds and slowly erode our senses; they are all around us and we often don’t realize their impact until much time passes.
There are many other things that cause angst, anxiety and fear in our daily lives. How do we deal with all of the societal pressures that we face and still stand strong? With domestic politics, geopolitical fears, natural disasters and global pandemics; life has really changed this past year. It didn’t all start here though, and while things are much different now, they will continue to change.
In Romans we see the apostle Paul telling the church at Rome something very important that speaks loudly to us today.
“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2 NASB2020)
Paul clearly writes that we “not be conformed to this world"; but what should we be doing? Of course he writes what we ought to be doing which is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If we want to have the peace of God in our lives and live out the will of God for our lives, then we are going to need His Holy Spirit to conform us. We aren’t to be conformed to this world but we should be conformed to heaven!
Keeping our mind focused on Christ is of the utmost importance as we live each day. We need to learn to put aside the worries and struggles of our days, as well as our triumphs; these can often take our focus off of Christ and onto ourselves. When we turn our focus to the external things of life and fail to focus on God, we can put too much trust in our own abilities and flesh. This makes us vulnerable and can be dangerous in our lives, we ought not to put so much confidence in the flesh.
Like Peter, in Matthew’s gospel, he started out with bold faith and trust in Jesus, however the realities of life and the difficulties of our circumstances can cause us to take our minds and eyes off of Christ. We should always be careful to keep our trust in God and not take our eyes off of Him. When we do keep our focus, we can walk through seemingly impossible conditions and keep our footing.
Practice a life of devotion by spending more time in prayer and meditate on God’s word. If we want to be conformed to Christ’s, then we will need to spend time with Him and life the kind of life that He modeled when He walked the earth. It won’t always be easy, in fact we may find things to be quite difficult at times, but we can rest assured, knowing that God’s plans and purposes for our lives are good. Jesus came to give us life and life to the full!
There are many other things that cause angst, anxiety and fear in our daily lives. How do we deal with all of the societal pressures that we face and still stand strong? With domestic politics, geopolitical fears, natural disasters and global pandemics; life has really changed this past year. It didn’t all start here though, and while things are much different now, they will continue to change.
In Romans we see the apostle Paul telling the church at Rome something very important that speaks loudly to us today.
“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2 NASB2020)
Paul clearly writes that we “not be conformed to this world"; but what should we be doing? Of course he writes what we ought to be doing which is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If we want to have the peace of God in our lives and live out the will of God for our lives, then we are going to need His Holy Spirit to conform us. We aren’t to be conformed to this world but we should be conformed to heaven!
Keeping our mind focused on Christ is of the utmost importance as we live each day. We need to learn to put aside the worries and struggles of our days, as well as our triumphs; these can often take our focus off of Christ and onto ourselves. When we turn our focus to the external things of life and fail to focus on God, we can put too much trust in our own abilities and flesh. This makes us vulnerable and can be dangerous in our lives, we ought not to put so much confidence in the flesh.
Like Peter, in Matthew’s gospel, he started out with bold faith and trust in Jesus, however the realities of life and the difficulties of our circumstances can cause us to take our minds and eyes off of Christ. We should always be careful to keep our trust in God and not take our eyes off of Him. When we do keep our focus, we can walk through seemingly impossible conditions and keep our footing.
Practice a life of devotion by spending more time in prayer and meditate on God’s word. If we want to be conformed to Christ’s, then we will need to spend time with Him and life the kind of life that He modeled when He walked the earth. It won’t always be easy, in fact we may find things to be quite difficult at times, but we can rest assured, knowing that God’s plans and purposes for our lives are good. Jesus came to give us life and life to the full!