Devotional Day 12

Worship

As you begin your time with The Lord today I encourage you to listen to “No Turning Back” by Steffany Gretzinger & Leeland

Scripture

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Devotional

Many Christians today are desperate to hear God’s voice. We want to know what his will is for our lives, whether we are living out his plan for our life and to know what he thinks about us, our families, our calling… and our lists go on. We long to hear from him, to discern his voice and be clearly led by the Spirit. The good news is that we absolutely can be, the bible passage we just read just told us that we ‘may discern the will of God, what is good acceptable and perfect’. Unfortunately for so many Christians, there is a fatal flaw in their understanding of how to clearly hear God’s voice and discern his will for their lives. No matter how much they pray for God to reveal his will, they just can’t break through the fog of confusion. The answer to clarity doesn’t really lie primarily in learning how to hear God more clearly, but actually in eliminating worldliness. The reason many Christians struggle to discern God’s will, is because they are worldly.

Romans 12:2 teaches us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Let’s begin at the first phrase.

The Bible commands us to not be conformed to this world.

When we conform to something, we fit into its mould. When we conform to the pattern of the world, it’s as if we were pliable putty, easily changing our shape - squishing ourselves to fit into the way the world thinks, and what it values. To be conformed to the world is to see any part of ourselves that doesn’t fit the mould and squash it in or stretch it out, contorting ourselves so that we do fit. This is what many of us have spent so long doing, conforming parts of who we are to fit better into the world - from the way we speak, the way we dress, our sexuality, even chasing money, success, power and the approval of certain social groups - all of this is conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world.

When we become a Christian we are to stop doing this, and instead be transformed into something entirely other worldly. It isn’t even that we are to be conformed to a different mould, squishing ourselves into what we think a christian should speak like, wear, etc… no this would just be religion. Rather, the gospel transforms us entirely! Our very substance is changed from the inside out. How does this happen? Not through going on some journey to ‘find ourselves’ and come back more self realised, no, the bible says we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. So then if the answer to discerning God’s will is not being worldly and the answer to not conforming to the world is to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, then how does that happen?

The renewing of our minds is a wonderful process in which we begin to think like God, and our thoughts, values and assumptions stop being wired into the world and are rewired to both the word of God and even the Lord himself, and begin to reflect the ways and values of God’s kingdom as revealed to us through Christ. In this way we are more than conformed to a new way, we are transformed completely! But how do we even begin this journey of transformation through mind renewal? The scripture goes on and tells us “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Testing? The renewal of our minds and the discernment of God’s will are inextricably linked and the linchpin is testing.

The word ‘testing’ here means to examine, prove or choose. We are to look at our lives and the world and hold them up closely to the magnifying glass of God’s revealed ways, his word and his Spirit and examine them carefully. Not just accepting the way we do things or the way the world does this, or even wholly rejecting them. But testing and examining all things to see how they align to God’s will. As we do this day after day, filtering the world and our decisions through God’s word and the Spirit we see a renewing in our minds as we begin to slowly but surely realign our lives with God.

This is why when we are worldly we don’t have the discernment to see God’s will, because our minds are conformed to the world’s patterns of thinking instead of God’s. We can read the bible and interpret it through the wrong lens, applying worldly thinking to it, saying ‘surely Jesus doesn’t mean precisely what he said’ or even not engaging with entire passages of scripture because we just can’t deal with it! In order to discern God’s will we must be transformed by the renewal of our minds through testing everything. As we test everything we begin to discern what is God’s will and see the renewal of our minds. And as our minds are renewed, we naturally begin to test everything and grow in our ability to discern God’s will.

Prayer

Spend some time in prayer today asking God to give you wisdom on how to see the renewing of your mind today. That he would open your eyes to the moments in which you are tempted to conform to the world and that he would show you his way, his thinking and his design for life. Ask him to bring to mind any other scriptures that will help shape areas of your life that are still yet to be transformed.