Pastor Chuck Swindoll said, ‘We like to imagine ourselves a race of rugged individuals – the Patrick Henrys, Davy Crocketts and Lone Rangers. The truth is, we hate to appear different lest we be ostracised, branded fanatics and rejected. So, we conform. You’ll see it in the child eager to please; the adolescent aligning with peer pressure; the adult breaking their back to keep up with the Joneses.’ But the Bible says: ‘Therefore, I urge you…to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (vv. 1-2 NIV). Trying to be different just to stand out, or because we want to push back against conformity and rules, doesn’t really have much value. What God had in mind when He inspired Paul to write ‘do not conform’ is our willingness to let Him radically transform us. Here are two important concepts to help us reach that goal. 1) Transformation belongs to believers. We can’t break the world’s control over them without Christ, but believers are promised: ‘the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world’ (1 John 4:4 NLT). God’s indwelling Spirit enables us to resist the world’s pressure to conform to its ungodly ways. 2) God’s appeal is urgent. Paul wrote, ‘I urge you.’ Words like beg, plead, beseech are used in some translations because the appeal isn’t secondary or optional. It’s vital, a divine command! God is looking for surrendered vessels that are ready to be transformed for His use and filled by Him. Are you willing to say, ‘Yes, Lord, use me’?
