Day 45 - Issue 23
Romans 12:2 NLT
'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.'
Around this time of year we endure one of America’s least appealing events, ‘Black Friday’. For me it’s a celebration of all that is wrong within our world, commercialism and the commercialisation of the human spirit. Media love to report not on the thrill of the bargain but the violence of consumers competing for the same item. The truth of scripture is acted out as God’s image-bearers are consumed with the spirit of the age and become so easily conformed to the values of our day.
Whether it’s our mood or our outward participation in life, it’s easier to be dictated to by prevailing feelings and culture than it is to live out of simple thanksgiving for all God is giving. I admit it can be a challenge to draw comfort and security from the basic truth that I am one who is loved and accepted by God at all times. Somewhere within me there’s a voice that speaks of the need to be dictated to by my prevailing mood made up of the thoughts and feelings that flow throughout my being, as well as comparing me with the guy next door or who works alongside me. I fail to follow God’s invitation to fix my eyes on Jesus and set my heart and mind on things above (see Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:2).
This is a time to give thanks that because of Jesus, we’re invited to be transformed, which means to modify, revise and amend our perception of self and the world around us. We can now live calling upon different values and looking through enlightened eyes. We are no longer earth-bound, squeezed into a shape dictated by the values that surround us, like a favourite shirt that no longer fits us. We can choose to live out of the treasury of God’s blessings, no matter how we feel or the appetites stirring within.
QUESTION: In what ways do you conform to the pattern of our world where God may want to bring transformation?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you have redeemed my whole life so that it may be shaped into your likeness. Please continue that work in me today.
