C O N F O R M I T Y

When you were a child, did you play with Play-doh modeling clay? Do you remember how it was soft and moldable? You could form it with a mold or use you hands to squeeze it into most any shape you could imagine. How much are you like Play-doh? What pressures in your life squeeze you into strange shapes?

Paul writes to his friends in Rome about being molded by pressures in Romans chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Paul tells his friends that the world has a pattern and it will work to make you conform. We've all seen this in what's called "peer pressure." There is an unseen pressure that comes from our friends, our culture, just the way the world does things, that tries to make us conform. The problem is that many times the way of the world is directly contrary to the ways of God. That's why Paul says, "Do not conform." His call is for us to be less like Play-doh and more like a rock.

If the world says, "That's good enough for them..." Reject that thought, be a rock. If the world says, "Go ahead, nobody's watching." Reject the notion, be a rock. When the world says, "Look out for number one." Reject that attitude, be a rock. Don't be squeezed any more by the world's Play-doh mold. Be a rock that resembles God and His pattern for life.