WEEK TWO: TRANSFORMATION

Years ago, I was attending a ministry training conference in the Pittsburgh area. When we checked in, we were given the typical items: a name tag, a small gift, and the conference manual. In that manual were the notes for all the sessions that we had pre-registered for. However, in those notes they had intentionally taken out some words and, in their place, they put a blank so that you could stay engaged, follow along with the speaker, and fill in the blanks with the appropriate answers.

In one of my sessions, we were all seated at round tables with five or six other individuals. At my table, there was one man who was filling in all the blanks in his manual long before the speaker would get to that point of the presentation just to see how many answers he got correct. He did pretty well, but if you think about it, it isn’t too difficult to figure out most of the blanks when you know the topic being discussed. However, when the man came to one that he didn’t get correct, instead of erasing or scratching out his incorrect answer, he would write “or” and then put the correct facilitator’s word after his. What arrogance! He now had the correct answer, but instead of accepting that he had written an incorrect answer in the blank space, he simply noted that there was an alternative answer that was somehow not as correct as his. Not only was he making himself look foolish, but he was basically saying “I know better than the expert who is teaching this session.”

I know that seems like a simple or even silly illustration, but how often do we treat God like that? We think something or we believe something because it’s what we want to believe rather than trusting in God and his Word. We “fill in the blanks” with what we desire or what we think is right rather than seeking truth from the “expert.”  Romans 12:2 tells us that we should not conform or take on the image of the world, but instead we should be transformed, or changed, by changing the way we think. This doesn’t mean we just think something different. It means that we submit our thoughts to the scrutiny of the truth of God’s Word. Truth never changes! If it is true, it is always true. So, if what we think doesn’t stand up to the truth, then we must change how we think.

Philippians 2:5-6 says, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.” (NLT) The New International Version uses the word “mindset” (or the way we think) in the place of  the word “attitude.” Jesus himself was willing to leave behind his deity, take on the flesh of humanity, and submit himself to the truth of God to fulfill God’s promise of redemption for you and me. Even though Jesus had doubts about the plan (read Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane), he willingly embraced the truth going to the cross to take on our penalty for sin.

You see, our thoughts and the direction of our minds are crucial. The direction our minds take will determine whether we experience life or death, peace or chaos. Our thoughts can either lead us toward a life of purpose, peace, and transformation…or they can spiral us toward destruction. So which do you choose: your own thoughts or God’s truth? Let’s be a people who walk in the freedom and transformation that comes from aligning our thoughts with the truth of God’s Word. As we renew our minds, we’ll find ourselves becoming the people God has called us to be, living the life he has destined for us.