We need to change - part 3 - last part

We believe that we have to change to be happy. The Bible, specifically in Rom 12: 1 and 2, urges us to change our minds in order to become what God desires us to be.

There is a process by which we are changed to become more like Christ. It is the process of being transformed. What we are taught in Rom 12, is a change of our minds that changes our nature. It is much more than an outward change. It is so radical that people would not be able to tell that we actually are the same people we used to be.

As my mind is renewed, my inner self changes. It is the person inside me that becomes more like Christ, because our thinking is trained to think along the lines of God’s ideas. We are told in Philippians: 4 to think about such things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

These we can only do by studying and contemplating the Word of God. We must seek out every opportunity to read and hear God’s Word. As we read and hear it taught, we are to respond to the challenge of being changed to the ways God thinks about life and by being obedient to that Word.

Rom 12: 1 & 2 says that the test whether we are changed by God Word, is that we come to a place where we not only know the will of God, but begin to live according to it. Paul says: “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Rom12: 2c)

A renewed person delights in knowing and doing the Word of God. Only a transformed mind can test the will of God, to prove that it is good, pleasing, and perfect.

The will of God is good. God only asks us to do that which is good for us.
The will of God is pleasing. It pleases God and will in the end please us. This is because it will result in a relationship with God which secures his blessing of us.
The will of God is perfect. God wants the best for us. His will is completely what we need in order walk with the Lord, work for the Lord and make a difference in the world for the Lord.

If you are a Christian, are you completely his? Have you surrendered to his will and Word?
Someone wrote that we must be careful not to develop the kind of Church we are the home of the 1% tithe and the thirty minute service with sermonettes for Christianettes. Or where our commitment is that instead of "Standing on the Promises" we are merely “sitting on the premises”.
This is not what God has in mind for me and you.

God wants everything. He wants our lives, our time, our abilities and resources, our jobs, our leisure, our families and marriages, our homes and our hobbies! Because God wants to change our minds and transforms us till we think like him and live for him in imitation of him in every aspect of life.

Do not be conformed — be transformed.
Come to Christ for a change.