Keys to Transforming Your Life

​​​​​​​“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:2

The importance of understanding this scripture cannot be overstated.  Here Paul gives us the key to true lasting change in our lives, resulting in the fulfillment our God given destinies.

Paul often used contrasting words to emphasize a point.  Here he uses the words CONFORMED and TRANSFORMED.  Conformation uses external pressure to change the outward appearance of something.  For instance I can take blue modeling clay and make a vase by applying technique and pressure.  I can reshape that same clay into an elephant if I want.  However it will ALWAYS be blue modeling clay.  The nature of it can not be changed by external pressure.

Today many people are conformed by the external pressure the world, or even the church, puts on them.  We call it “peer pressure.”  External pressure shaping an external response without any change of nature.  This is religion at its worst.  Many people who have conformed to external religious requirements, however moral or good, have never experienced a change of nature and, because of this, struggle with conformity all their lives.

In contrast to this Paul uses the word TRANSFORMED.  To transform something means to change its nature, not just its external appearance.  It is the Greek word we get metamorphosis from.  A worm “morphs” into a butterfly.  They are not two different creatures, but certainly not the same either.  The nature has been changed.  Likewise spiritual transformation changes the believer.  We are in many ways the same person, but with whole different thoughts and actions.

We know how conformation happens.  But how are we TRANSFORMED?  Paul tells us it is “by the renewing of our minds.”  Our basic belief systems dictate our thinking and thus our outward actions and reactions.  When you change what you believe you automatically impact the way you act. 

To try to serve God without transformation is to fail miserably.  It is only as we are transformed that we have the spiritual wherewithal to find and fulfill our spiritual destinies.

By Steve Highlander