By Hannah Suttle
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” ~Romans 12:2
This is a verse we have all heard before. How we should flee from sin and strive to be more like Christ has been preached consistently from the pulpits. It is easy, however, when the emotion of the service is over, to quickly become lackadaisical and forget about taking action upon those convictions. We do the obvious things: we are at church for every service, and are faithful to our tithes and offerings. We have good dress standards, and have our kids enrolled in the Christian school. We make sure we read our Bibles regularly, and give a little gift basket to the missionaries when they come through. We have lived up to the standard of “being an exceptional Christian,” being different and not conforming to the world.
I was recently convicted that we have made the mistake of thinking that “not conforming” and “transforming” are the same thing. During a lecture in one of my college classes, our teacher, Pastor Robert Simpson, made this statement, “Just because it isn’t sin, doesn’t make it acceptable.” As Christians, the goal of our life should be to please the Lord in everything that we do. When we walk with God, there will be things that we cannot do and feel as if we are pleasing God at the same time.
For instance, staying up late on Saturday and watching a movie is not a sin, but you are not as rested in body or as prepared in spirit for the service as you could have been if you had gone to bed earlier. Eating three pieces of cake is not a sin, but it is not taking as good of care of your temple as you could have if you would have only eaten one slice. We are so good at following the rules and doing the right thing, but I am afraid that more often than not, it is out of habit instead of desire. We are being careful not to conform to the world, but we are not taking any extra steps to be transformed to the mind of Christ.
I do not want to just be “not conformed.” I want my life to be lived for the purpose of pleasing my Savior. I want to be transformed to be like Christ. I want His love to shine through me, whether it be my attitude or my actions. I want my mind to be renewed to be constantly thinking of things that I can do to glorify God. I want to prove His will for my life, and that will is serving Him with my whole heart. I want to encourage you to take this challenge too!
Look for little things in your everyday life that you can do to glorify God just a little bit more than you did the day before.
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