Are you really an individual?

When it comes to your thinking…are you really an individual?  Romans 12.2

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. JB Phillips

Did you think about whether or not you are conformed or transformed—conformed to the world’s values and ways of doing things, OR transformed by the love and power of God in your life?  ‘Set free to really live, unencumbered by the pressures of the world…or constantly squeezed into a mold of looking just so, acting just so, and speaking just so …?

‘How about you, pastor woman?  Are you conformed or transformed?’ you ask.  Honestly I am sure I am much more conformed than transformed.  Oh, I have moments when I have fixed my gaze on Jesus so strongly that my faith knows no bounds . . . if he asked me, I could get out of the boat and walk on the water to him.  But more often than not, my gaze gets interrupted, and I look away, and like Peter, find myself sinking.  Not because of a lack of faith that HE IS, but because something else catches my attention, and I get sidetracked. 

Conformed or transformed . . . who cares?  Who cares whether or not your ways are shaped by the popular culture?  Hmmm, well, I guess it all depends . . . who or what are you living for?  I mean, if you look at your life as 77 years, plus or minus three or four, and that this life is all there is . . . well maybe that’s okay then, but it does seem rather unoriginal.

If on the other hand, you know there is a Creator God who keeps this earth spinning on its axis, and if you believe he created you, and that he did so in his image, as an individual—a one-of-a-kind original . . . then, you know you have been made for so much more!  You know that this life is not all there is . . . in addition, you know that you are an eternal being, and that though your body will expire, your very being will not. And wonder of wonders, God gives you and me the choice to spend eternity with him or without him.  In Revelation, we read that in Heaven, there is no night . . . no darkness, no tears;¹ however, the alternative is a place without the presence of God—think of the implications of that!  Eternity separated from God would mean no love, no light, no peace, no righteousness, no grace, no truth, no gentleness, no rest, no contentment, because God is the source of all of those. 

I choose a relationship of faith in him, and I don’t want to conform, I want to be transformed . . . ‘you?

And now, Paul tells his Christian brothers,

       do not be conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

As I have spent a lot of time thinking, studying and praying about what it means as Christians to renew our minds, I am wondering--                       by renew, did Paul mean make new … make our minds new?

by renew, did Paul mean replenish/ refill … replenish or refill our minds?

by renew, did Paul mean enlarge / expand … enlarge or expand the capacity of our minds?  I think Paul meant for renew to mean all of the above, and more. We commonly speak of renewable resources, and our minds certainly fall into that category.

Spiritual transformation comes about as our lives are radically changed from the inside out--the trifecta of the Holy Spirit, the word and us working together.  Our part of renewing our minds comes with action and intention.  Seek first the kingdom of God and these things will be given to you.²  ‘These things?’  What we eat, drink and wear.  Look at it like this:  But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.³

The most important way we make our minds new, replenish and expand our thinking is by seeking God first.  It is the first step in morphing from being conformed to transformed.  And in seeking God first, we are suddenly released, set free to be our own man … 

Christine

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