Nor conforming, but transformed

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

To conform or transform?

That’s a question that faces every believer many times every day. What do we do when confronted by a world that seems like it is constantly struggling to drag us downhill?

There are two clear choices here:

Conform to the world
Let your life be transformed by the word of God

Conforming the world is the easy choice. Nobody really wants to be different. We all want to fit in. We don’t like being labelled as weird or some kind of freak.

Plus the world is so alluring. The pleasures of sin for a season draw us. Sin and worldliness would not be such a problem if they did not give some kind of pleasure. It is easy just to slide into the ways of the world. I heard an old preacher put it clearly one day – ‘even a dead fish can float downstream.’

But our call is to be transformed by our new mind in Christ. There must be a change in us once we have the mind of Christ. We are new creations. The world is no longer our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are to look at things above instead of dwelling on things in this world.

How are we going about our lives. Are we just ‘winging it’ day by day kind of attaching a little bit of God when we need Him. Or our we letting our minds be transformed day after day after day?

Don’t conform – be transformed.