What’s “trending” in your mind? Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media and you see the same videos or hear the same sounds? Maybe you’re not active on social media, but you notice everyone wearing a certain style of shoe, so you start to wear those same shoes. After being around a certain group of people, you may catch yourself using the same phrases as you speak. Whether we like it or not, the world around us has influence on most aspects of our lives. How we speak, how we look, and even how we think changes daily based on who we surround ourselves with and what we fill our time with.
Even though the standards of beauty and what is deemed as “attractive” change, one thing remains constant - people have a lot to say about the way someone looks. A beauty standard that is trending one day, may be out the next. A body-type that is glorified one week, may be torn apart weeks later. The sad reality is once something is “trending” in your mind, it becomes hard to differentiate between what is the truth and what is the lie disguising itself as truth.
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. (Romans 12:2)
Let’s break down the verse above. The word conform simply means to change your beliefs, attitudes, and actions to more closely match a certain group of people you seek the approval from, or want to belong with. The “pattern of this world” is referencing the sinful patterns that we as humans fall into. The cultural influences surrounding us hinder our ability to become more Christ-like, especially when we are trying to blend in with the world around us. To summarize the first part of Romans 12:2, it is stating that we as believers should not allow the influences of the sinful world we live in to change our beliefs, attitudes, and actions.
The second part of the verse is where the hope is found. To be transformed means to make a dramatic change, often times found in appearance or character. Think of renewing your mind like shifting your perspective. It’s human nature to look through life with a bias lens on it. We look at ourselves, others, and God with a lens of personal experience, past trauma, opinions from others, judgement and so on. When we allow God to transform our hearts, the Holy Spirit is active within us and is able to shift our perspective to a Kingdom Perspective. By allowing a perspective shift, we are able to seek out the truths of what God says, which in result causes transformation.
What if we had a Kingdom Perspective when we viewed ourselves? Instead of allowing the lies of not being ____ enough, we can sit in comfort knowing the truths God speaks over us.
