Monday, August 4, 2008

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How Will You be Formed?

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2).

We need to realize that we are always being formed in one way or another.  And, there are only two options.  Either we are being conformed to this world whose conformity is not benign, or we choose the other way.  We are caught in a tug-of-war between the prince of this world who wants to destroy us — but who, by the way, has already been defeated (John 12:31, 16:11) — and the rightful King whose desire for us is good and acceptable and perfect.

Did you know that we don't really choose to be conformed to the world?  It happens simply as a result of being here.  Repeatedly throughout the letters to the churches in the New Testament, we read how we used to walk in a variety of sinful ways.  And we did those things in the past without giving any thought to them.  We had been conformed to the world's way of thinking.  And, if you listen to the people around you whom Jesus still wants to rescue, they will talk and act as if all of those things are normal.  They are.  If we are conformed to the world.

Let me illustrate how this happens.  I worked one summer when I was attending Bible college in an automotive plant where both my father and father-in-law worked.  And the factory was filled with huge noisy machines that all used heat/pressure to conform an ordinary piece of steel into the particular part that was being manufactured.  I think that this is the way that the world works.  If we are inserted in the machine, the world in this case, it will through heat and pressure shape us into its own image.  It will exert it's will on us and we will come out looking like every other person in that world.  Conformity to the world.

The problem comes after we choose Christ.  We don't immediately escape the machine of the world.  We still remain in it.  And it will continue to attempt to shape us as it has always done.  And it will accomplish that unless we are able to counteract it's heat and pressure with a force that is greater.  How are we going to be formed?  Am I going to unthinkingly continue to submit to the subtle but powerful pressure to be conformed to the world or am I going to submit to God and choose rather "to be conformed to the likeness of his Son."

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined — chose before time began — to be conformed to the likeness of his Son" (Romans 8:28-29). 

This is God's plan however, it is not automatic.  He will and in fact is doing everything he can to help us.  But he wants it to be a choice.  Satan is not that way.  He will force his reign over you and he must do so, because it is an illegitimate reign.  God on the other hand, offers you a better way.  A choice to be transformed.  A choice literally to submit ourselves to a metamorphosis in which we emerge no longer a creature of this world but a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The only way that God's plan for you and me can be a reality is for us to think in a new way and in order to do that we must have our minds renewed.  You can't just change your mind.  It needs to be transformed if we hope to escape the conforming pressure of this world and be conformed to the image of Jesus.  And this is the role of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:26-27).

We are in a battle for our minds.  Will we continue to think as we always have, and continue to be conformed to the world?  Or will we allow God's Holy Spirit to transform our minds so that we begin today to think and then act in God's ways?  Reading the Bible is a great place to start because it is filled with God's thoughts and God's ways and it gives the Holy Spirit the raw materials he needs. Prayer is another vital tool.  The will of God is that we win the battle!  He has already won it for us!  So choose to be on the winning side.

Holy Spirit, renew my mind today.  I choose conformity to Jesus rather than conformity to the world.  I want what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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