Each time we offer our bodies as ‘living sacrifices’ to God, our stubborn natures will rebel. But with Christ in control we can break its grip. ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (NIV). We have the option: be conformed or transformed! Deciding ‘l will not conform to the world’ leads to a transformed lifestyle. Our old natures naturally conform, trapping us with worldly influences. J.B. Phillips’s translation of the Bible says: ‘Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.’ If we choose to conform to worldly values, like self-gratification, pride, control, and so on, we move further away from the liberating power of Christ within us, and eventually become trapped in a recurring cycle of guilt, failure and discouragement. Choosing not to conform to this world is what opens the door to transformation. Our walk with God will become an external expression of an internal change. Just like the tadpole’s life is transformed into the frog’s life, and the caterpillar’s into the butterfly’s, you become transformed from the inside out – and it happens because ‘Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world’ (1 John 4:4 KJV). So, decide not to conform to world values, commit to ‘the renewing of your mind’ (which in Greek text means you think God’s thoughts instead of your old thoughts), and then watch as a transformation that’s empowered by the Holy Spirit begins to take place in your life!
