"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." - Romans 12:1-2
I never really thought about how vastly different we all are as people. We may be similar in race, community, physical location. We may share the same last name...
But we are all different.
Our experiences have shaped the way we view the world. Our upbringing gives us a starting point for our careers. Relationships have shaped the way our heart trust others. The culture we grew in shaped our motivations for success. Whoever you are and however you were created is BIG. And that "bigness", our developed personality, is where we find our greatest struggle with God. We believe things should work "this" way. We think "this" path is the best. We believe "this" mindset will make us successful. We assert "that" friend group will bring us the status and love we desire. But that is all of our stories. We met Jesus at particular moment and decided that He was best for us. And since that moment, Jesus has been trying to show us that our perceptions have misguided us so many times.
You see, when the scripture is instructing us to put away the world's pattern and be transformed by having our minds renewed, it's not about us losing but gaining. We as believers have to come to grips that our way isn't sufficient for the life Jesus has for us. If we truly want to be members of the church and citizens of heaven, we have to learn a new way. Your way was ok and helped you survive the world, Jesus wants to elevate us to think and understand like a citizen of heaven does. We can't bring worldly love into heaven. We can't bring worldly insecurities in heaven. Everything we are doing is not just giving us tools to live here but preparing us for the great day when God calls us home.
Be Transformed