His Perfect Will

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

HIS PERFECT WILL

Rom 12:1-2

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer 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.

NIV

Although we have considered offering ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and agreeable to God which is our spiritual act of worship, we did not spend any thought about worship at all, and we look into this not conforming, but being transformed by going through a metamorphosis in our thinking, we now want to ponder the results. Because we have renewed our minds and changed the way we think completely, we no longer conform to the pattern of this world, and because we worship God with our entire being, as Jesus told us to love the Lord God with all our mind, soul, spirit and strength, or body, we now are able to recognize as genuine after examination and deem worthy, the will, what he wishes, or determines that what should be done, of God. In other words, unless we renew our minds, unless we completely change our way of thinking, and leave that pattern behind, we will never be able to comprehend the will of God for our lives both in the corporate and personal sense. However, if our faith is in Jesus Christ, which means that we believe God as Abraham did, then God will have this conversation with us, as he did with Abraham, informing him of what he was about to do, that is what his will was concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. God wants us to know his will, he is not trying to hide his determination, his plan, and his will for the church in general as well as for each of us personally. However, we do not think he is willing to reveal his will to those who pattern their lives after the world, for they have not renewed the way they think. So then what we know as far as God’s will for us as believers is to be his image bearers. We are to reflect his glory to the world and do so with ever-increasing glory. What we notice, at least it seems that way to us, is that the chasm between the pattern of this world and the way we live is becoming greater and greater. It is as though we live in two different worlds, which may be more true than we realize. Those who live according to the pattern of this world, live in the world. We who have renewed our minds live in the kingdom of God. Their god is their stomachs, or self-preservation, self-satisfaction, self-centered and self-pleasured lifestyle, serving only their desires. We have changed how we approach life, as we have renewed the way we think and we have submitted ourselves to the living God for his plan, his purpose for our lives. This would be an either/or situation, as it would appear very difficult, actually impossible to live in both the world and in the kingdom of God. We have never had any success riding on the edge of a fence, nor have we seen any cow able to graze on both sides of the fence simultaneously. Let us reexamine how we think about everything. Let us take a hard long look into our thinking, and even ask our Lord, if we have any anxious thoughts, and to search our heart and mind, helping us to rethink anything that even resembles any pattern whatsoever of this world. Coming to Him is our only hope, our only way of ever being able to comprehend his good, pleasing, and perfect will.