Life to the FullSample

Don’t Conform, Be Transformed

Today’s devotion focuses on four words that come from Romans 12 Verse 2: Don't conform, be transformed. They are four words to get stuck in your head and your heart.

Think for a moment about what the culture is like in your school, your college, your sports team, your youth group. Do you ever find yourself fitting into that culture without even thinking about it? What we value as Christians can often directly conflict with the values of the rest of today’s society. If we want to live life to the full and live the life that Jesus has for us, then the Bible tells us we've got to be increasingly transformed to look more like Him.

To live life to the full as Jesus intended, we can’t conform to the patterns of this world. The Message translation puts it like this: ‘Don't become so well adjusted to the culture that you fit in without even thinking’. The Jesus seen in the Bible didn't conform to the culture around Him. He was kind to the people that society trod on and spat out; He treated them with dignity and stood up for the oppressed.

The more we read the Bible and consider the life of Jesus, the more we see the ways that our culture just doesn't line up with its teachings. The message of the Gospel is that there's so much more to life than that which society offers. But only if we allow God to transform our minds. To let God transform our minds, we’ve got to focus our minds on Jesus.

When you're feeling anxious or worried, how often do you distract yourselves with what you're watching, consuming or doing? The Message Bible describes worship as taking your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to school, walking around life - and placing it before God as an offering and letting Him change us. He transforms us. When it comes to renewing our minds, prayer and the scriptures are great tools that we’ve been given; the tools to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We've got to focus our minds on Jesus and fill our minds with the stuff of God.

Are you going to settle for allowing yourself to conform to the patterns of this world or are you going to say, ‘No, I'm going to conform to the patterns of Scripture and I'm going to have my mind transformed as I go’?

Questions

Where in your life do you think you are conforming to the patterns of this world?

What can you do about that today?

Prayer

God,

Thank You, that You offer us a life so much more fulfilling than anything we could hope to get from this world. I pray that today, as I go about my day, Lord, You would help me to reject the patterns of this world and focus my heart on You.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.