Each time we offer our bodies as ‘living sacrifices’ to God, our stubborn nature 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. Your old nature naturally conforms, enslaving you to worldly influences. J.B. Phillips’s translation says: ‘Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.’ Conforming to the world’s values, like sensuality, pride, control, etc., will rob you of the liberating power of Christ living in you, resulting in a recurring cycle of guilt, failure and discouragement. Choosing not to conform to this world is what opens the door to your transformation, unlike conformity, which is externally initiated, your walk with God will become an outer expression of an inner change. 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. How does it happen? ‘Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world’ (1 John 4:4 KJV). Add to your decision not to conform, your commitment to ‘the renewing of your mind’, which in Greek text means you think God’s thoughts instead of your old thoughts, then watch as a Holy Spirit-empowered transformation begins to take place in your daily life.
