When you conform to this world are you missing out on God’s will?
“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 NIV
Reflection
Jesus coming to this planet and His very public three years of ministry prior to His murder was an example of what Paul writes. Jesus was here to help us understand that the way the world was, was not correct. People clearly thought it was correct, but it wasn’t. The focus on the way the world goes and losing sight of what the Father has expressed is what is causing many to not live the life that God wanted for them.
He then went about His ministry, showing people how to be. Forgive someone who clearly did something wrong but show them love and compassion despite it. Embrace someone clearly in need of that touch and heal their souls by your compassion. Change your perspectives on many things by living a life centered on God with love in your soul.
Conforming to this world is what many people do. I see it every day in the community I live in. I even see it with several people I have met. For some reason everyone wants to be right, be smarter, have more, hit the better golf shot, brag about a place they went, demonstrate they do more good than another, ultimately it is about standing out in some way. Unfortunately, they are consumed by an earthly standard.
We are not to play a comparison game regarding God and being centered. God’s need for us is at the level He has decided. What is important is we are doing what He needs us to do and not some earthly measure of that outcome. Read that again. It isn’t about the impact of what we have done compared to another. It is all about that impact needed when and where God needed it.
Paul tries to help us understand that our views of ourselves should not be baked into how our version of the world is currently measuring things. That comparison is a fools errand. My thought on this is that if you set your expectations on what the world thinks, you probably will be disappointed.
Now those of you who are either analytical types or perhaps competitive are struggling with this. (If you even got this far in this reading that is.) For the competitive person you are saying but if I can’t measure myself against another how do I know if I am winning? While the analytic person is saying how can you determine improvement or lack of improvement if you don’t have the data? I get it. Fully understand. Yet, when you measure yourself against the world view you are better than that. Why? Because their is the God view.
God clearly isn’t driven by this world view. At least I hope we can agree on that. He is so much bigger and we will never fully understand Him. We can’t. We are part of His creation and we are significantly insignificant people. So God using an earthly measure for us just doesn’t even seem like something He would put any stock in.
So what is a possible measuring stick for God? That’s where I think our free will and our desire to be aligned with His Will is where the rubber meets the road. That’s where God wants us to be and He wants it to be our decision. He doesn’t want to make that decision for us.
Now you could say what a game is being played here! That may be true. But I think it is more that God loves us in away we really can not understand but it was to give us so much and our free will as well. He knows the outcome of our decisions and He is rooting for us to make the right choices which are no doubt aligned with what He would want for us. As such, we aren’t puppets or chess pieces we are significantly insignificant people. If you are a parent you might understand wanting your child to make a certain decision because you feel like it would be the better choice for them. When they don’t. You don’t abandon them. You love them through that one. Right?
Where it comes to God I do hope you are not judging yourself by another. I hope you actually stop doing that for all things in your life. Just be the best version of yourself and if you are to measure yourself do it against yourself and not another. Some good things to check in on are frequency of quite time with God, what you are saying or doing during that time, how are you doing getting back in realignment with God centered living, and am I filling my life with worthy or worthless things?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for the example of Jesus. Thank you for the writings of Paul and others. Thank you for helping us understand that we are not to focus on this world but you. Thank you for our free will and your cheering us on. Help us Father remain focused on you and your will. Teach us that will. Help us stay away from the trap of comparison and lead us to being content with all that you have given us. Help us understand that each beat of our hearts is a gift from you. Our days are numbered and it is about what we do between now and when. Allow us to get aligned with you and stay aligned with you Father. Let us be satisfied with that difference we do make to who you allow no matter how big or small that difference is. Please keep us safe. Keep our families and friends safe. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus who is our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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