By Audrey Bauman

Romans 12: 1-2    (The Message)

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”   (NASB)

I chose a new version of the first two verses in Romans – the paraphrase called The Message.  I also repeated one of the translations from Friday since there are some words in both versions that caught my attention.

Most of the versions talk about offering or presenting our bodies to God.  Just what that means on an everyday practical basis is a little difficult to comprehend. But I love the way The Message words it: “your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life”.  That I understand.  But just how do I do that – present my everyday life to God?  I think verse 2 gives some insight into that process. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  

The word “transformed” comes from a Greek word that is the root of the word “metamorphosis”.  Perhaps you remember from science class learning about how a caterpillar goes into a cocoon and comes out a butterfly.  When our kids were little, my husband (there are advantages to having a science teacher for a husband) used to look for those cocoons attached to a small branch and bring them home and put them in a jar.  We’d watch the process over time as the cocoon changed shape, and the butterfly wriggled out and shook off its wings.   When the butterfly looked like it was going to survive, we’d take it outside and watch it flutter and gain strength in our backyard.  Our girls loved that science lesson in our kitchen.

When we first come to Christ, we are very much like the world around us; we’ve absorbed its values and ways of doing things.   Then the Holy Spirit begins His work in us, and gradually we change.  Our minds are transformed.  How does that happen? First of all, the Holy Spirit starts prompting us in our minds. But just as important, we should become familiar with the Bible and what it says. There is another verse that talks about our transformation through the Scripture.  2 Timothy 3: 15 – 16 says, “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”  (The Message)

As we read God’s Word on a daily basis, we learn more of God’s heart and His way of doing things, and the Holy Spirit can keep reminding us of what we’ve read. That shapes our way of thinking and approaching the world around us. More than ever today, I see the values of our world clashing with God’s values.   In the Western World, we are so focused on material wealth – making money, living the good life.  We’re focused on advancing ourselves – what is best for me.  Heaven forbid that we put aside our own interests for someone else’s benefit.  We work for success for ourselves and especially for our children – success at school, at sports, etc.  We look up to those people who are successful and famous.

Over the next couple of weeks as we go through the last 4 chapters of Romans, I think we are going to be challenged by what Paul says.  That sounds somewhat scary, but I think we also need to remember the end of those first two verses:

“Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”  …  or …

“So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God is not asking us to become pathetic, trampled on people.  His plans lead to maturity and that which is good, acceptable and perfect.  What we need to do is submit to that process of transformation of our minds by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.  We won’t be disappointed.

Our song for today is Love of God by Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham.