God's Will For My Life-Part V

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 (NKJV)

We have been looking at a devotional series of how we can know God's will for our lives, and in the first 4-parts of this series we've looked at Romans 12:1-2 and so far we have looked at 3-principles for knowing the will of God for our lives.  The first was based on how we were to: 

1.    "Present your bodies a living sacrifice," 

 And the second was what it meant to be:

2.    "Holy, Acceptable to God"

The third principle is that we learned was that we have been told:

3.    "And do not be conformed to this world,"

In Part V of this series, we are going to continue to look at Romans 12:1-2 and today we will begin with our fourth principle for knowing the will of God:

4.    "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind"

In our last devotional, we looked at what it meant to be "Conformed."  We learned that this word was used in a passive Verb form, and in that same manor, we can see that "Be transformed" is being used in the same way.  

So this means that we are to allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.  So instead of being conformed to this world, we are now being conformed to these new thoughts from God's Word, and we will be outwardly transformed as a result.  Instead of having that shallow trendy facade on the outside that represents the ways of the world, we will start to be conformed into the image of Jesus and our actions will reflect our new spiritual thoughts as well. 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

I want to clarify something very important here though.  It is not our outward desire, or our own energy that causes this powerful transformation.  It is by God Himself as the Holy Spirit works in us to make this change. He does this by the Renewing of our minds by the Word of God.

We can see how King David identifies that God's Word was something that would affect his actions.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Psalms 119:11 (NKJV)

Simply put, we are what we eat.  Or in this case, we are what we think and meditate upon.  If we think upon something wrong continually, chances are we will act upon this thought.  And the same applies when we think upon the good things such as God's Word.  If we think upon it often enough, we will begin to act upon it, and that affects change on the outside--that is being transformed by the renewing of our mind.  

Hey Christian, we need to immerse our minds in the Word of God, and in the things of God.  If we do this, we will continue to change.  We should not be focusing on the things of this world, but instead, we should be thinking on the things of Heaven.  

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2 (NKJV)

If we follow these things that we have been studying these last 5-devotionals--the things contained within Romans 12:1-2, then we will know the acceptable and perfect will of God.  If our minds are filled with God's Word, and are transformed, we will be able to think, reason and understand things in a way that the Lord wants us to.  We will, as a result, only accept those things that conform to the will of God for our lives. 

Simply put, when our minds are transformed, our will is transformed, and our life will reflect that.  There will be spiritual fruit to show this spiritual transformation as we are now going to be eager and with the Holy Spirit's help, able to stop doing those sinful things we have struggled with for so long.  And we will cast aside our own fleshly plans and desires to make room for the Lords.  We will fully trust His plan for our life, and we will have joy regardless of the challenges we face, and regardless of what the costs may be.

I will close with this; I want to encourage you to continually be in His Word.  This transformation process will never stop as long as we dwell within our earthly body, and neither will the temptation to sin stop.  But with continual transformation with the renewing of our mind, we will know and be able to act upon God's will for our lives.  

STUDY QUESTION: How should we be transformed by the renewing of our mind?

PERSONAL INVENTORY: Are you reading God's Word daily?  Are you willing to be transformed by the renewing of your mind to know and act upon God's will for your life?

APPLICATION: Spend time in the Word daily.  Ask God to reveal to you any thought that is not in His will, and then wrestle them out of your mind, and replace them with what is righteous.