Romans
12:1-2
A Living
Sacrifice
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing
and perfect will.
(Underlined
portion is my own added emphasis)
I
found my way back to my blog!
I
have been sorting through so much stuff in my mind and I just haven’t gotten
around to putting it into words.
Romans
12:1-2 has been playing in my head over and over again this last month.
I
know God keeps leading me right back to this verse every time I start doubting
or find myself reaching back to what feels safe.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the RENEWING of your MIND.”
Wow
what powerful words.
As
I ponder on these words I am taken back by the truth that I was neglecting to
see or hear when I looked at this verse.
Let
me give you another glimpse into what God was and is and will forever be
teaching me so you can better understand what I am talking about…..
Back
in December is when I started to feel as if I was slowly losing myself. I had a hard time making sense of my
feelings. I found myself trying to pick
up all the broken pieces to put them together and I couldn’t.
As
I started battling what was going on in my mind and the way I was feeling I
would beg God to make me feel “normal” again.
I just wanted to go back to the way I felt when I seemed to have it all
together. My mind was anxious and I was
having a hard time controlling it. It
just wasn’t a place of safe for me.
The
feeling of second guessing everything, fear, panic, anxiety and just flat out
questioning who God really was and is in the midst of all of this was not my
idea of feeling safe!
And
you know what; it was and is not a fun feeling, in fact I HATE it.
During
this time is when a wise counselor pointed out to me Romans 12 and the fact
that God doesn’t call us to find a place of safety and live there with Him
forever. He calls us to fight against worldly
pattern and to continually renew our minds.
As
I sat with this thought for a while I realized He was challenging me to change
my way of thinking to a healthier way of thinking. To break old habits, patterns that are of
this world not of Him.
What
I was slowly learning is He wasn’t calling me back to that feeling of “normal”,
He was challenging me to work through these thoughts and the way my mind processes
things so I could have a renewed way of thinking.
To
sit with Him even though it hurt and it didn’t feel right.
He
was beginning to show me the areas in my own mind and way of thinking that
needed to be transformed.
In
all honesty I didn’t even know the depth of pain and worldly pattern He
was challenging me to break free from.
These
habits and ways of thinking that formed as a small child.
As infants and children we learn to trust,
bond, love ourselves, and form relationships.
We are little sponges taking in everything around us.
For
me God was speaking into a place I tried so hard to forget about and conceal. A
place I worked so hard not to repeat or be like. But in truth I was in complete bondage and
couldn’t even see it.
When
we continue to just remain in a place of comfort with ourselves and God we can
slowly begin to lose sight of our very self that holds us bondage to sinful
natures and worldly patterns.
I
found myself up against something I just wanted God to take away, not work
through.
I mean isn’t it just easier
sometimes to say to Him, “Ok Lord I know this isn’t good so just make it go away please so I can move on”.
I
knew I could trust Him, but truthfully it was painful to walk through these
dark areas and find truth in them and let myself experience raw emotion and truth together.
It
is so easy to speak truth to someone else, but to really believe truth and then
practice it in your own life in the midst of a storm is another thing!
Do
you ever find yourself not wanting to face the feelings or truth of a situation
or circumstance in your own life?
Whether
you grew up in a functional home or dysfunctional home there is a story.
Somewhere in that story there is pain,
disappointment, heartache, brokenness.
Areas we may unconsciously try to cover up or forget about, right?
If
we can be honest with ourselves I feel we can all answer yes.
Why?
Well
we are all a part of this thing we call life, and in life there is sin which
creates all these things like, disappointments, pain, sadness, death, hurt,
brokenness, and etc…
We
may be able to hide the pain from our family, friends or even our own self, but
God knows.
He
knows the very areas He wants to transform, and the patterns of this world He
wants no more.
Even
in the Christian community I feel there are so many people that hide their true
self from each other.
We become ashamed
of our pain, or our thoughts. If we love
God we shouldn’t feel this way or act this way.
We
can become so superficial in our connections with each other and God!
Even
with the people that are closest to us, we refuse to let them see our “true self”
In
the book “Changes that Heal”, from Dr. Henry Cloud he talks about our “true
self”.
In order to be our true self both grace and truth
is needed. When we can let our true self
come into relationship with God and others an incredible dynamic can be set in
motion. We can grow as God created us to
grow when we can learn to confess who we truly are and identify our real state. Problems begin to occur when the real self or
true self, the one God created, begins hiding from God and others. If we let our true self go into hiding then the
false self begins to take over. When the
false self is present and relating to others and God, then grace and truth can
no longer heal us.
What
does the bible say about our false self?
1.
Our false self is conformed to this world.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2.
The false
self is who we tend to show to others as a front.
Ephesians 4:20-25
That, however, is not
the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him
in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its
deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like
God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off
falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one
body.
We
live in a world where there is a quick fix for almost everything.
Face it Satan wants nothing more for us to
remain conformed to this world, its distorted ways of thinking and dealing.
We
hid behind our smiles, pretend the pain isn’t there, or unconsciously refuse to
face it.
I
see this pattern in myself and so many around me.
Satan
wants us to believe this way of thinking is ok.
But
what happens when God is calling you to transform your way of thinking?
Or
Challenges
you to break free from the patterns of this world?
Can
we really do that with a quick fix or by pretending it isn’t there?
Well
that might offer temporary pleasure and relief, but does it really get dealt
with and worked through?
NO
I
want that quick fix, and I want nothing more than to feel safe and secure with
myself.
I can find plenty of ways to give myself temporary fixes, even ones
that are good for me!!
But
is that what God is offering us, something temporary?
NO!!
Healing
and mending takes time.
In
this portion of Psalms David is crying out to God asking Him to search out his
own sin and reveal it to him, and even asking him to test his own thought
pattern!
PSALMS
139: 23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know
my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any
offensive way in me,
and lead me in the
way everlasting.
If
we are willing to let him bend us enough to break our own patterns that have
been formed from living life and experiencing pains, hurts and disappointment,
then we can begin to let our true self show and live in accordance to Gods
will.
He
can begin stripping us of this world and the patterns that can so easily
entangle us and begin replacing it with His TRUTH and security.
Don’t
let Satan keep you entangled in bondage that isn’t necessary.
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that
so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for
us
Are you at a point in life where you find yourself going back to the same pattern of thinking? Do you ever feel like you are battling the same things over and over again with a result that is only temporary? Have you ever thought maybe God keeps bringing you back to that point to transform your mind?
He
doesn’t say it is going to be easy or pain free, or that is will be fixed immediately, but He does tell us we are not alone and He will walk it with us
if we let Him.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my
shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie
down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my
soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s
sake.
Even though I walk
through the
darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are
with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of
my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my
life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
My
prayer for all of us is that we will be willing to let God search our sinful
nature, reveal truth into our darkness, be transform by a renewed way of thinking.
He
is at constant work in our lives especially in the midst of pain, struggle and
disappointment.
Is your
true self waiting…..?
