Clearing the Temple 4

Romans 12:2

I began my teaching career in a small, special school for pregnant teen-agers. It was a unique setting – six classrooms and sixty students. And one interesting feature to me was the peaceful nature of all those girls together. I suppose it was a variety of factors that caused it – all the students were girls, it was a small group, the students were from many different school districts, the administration’s attitude was very peaceful.

Even when a new student enrolled in the school, she might have started off mouthy and loud, but in a very short time she would settle in and be as calm and agreeable as all the others. For some reason the setting of that school caused all the students to conform to a more peaceful nature.

In that instance conforming was a good thing. But Paul has something to say about conforming. What should we NOT do? What should we do?

It can be too easy and too tempting sometimes to conform to the patterns of the world around us. We see other people living lives of sin and recklessness, and we may want to do the same. We see other people caught up in a life of selfish ambition, and we may be tempted to want more and more at any cost.

But as Christians we need to guard against allowing the patterns of the material, human world affect who we are. We need to resist becoming simply one more person in this ocean of lost souls.

How do we do that? We do it by renewing our minds, clearing away all the human and material influences which surround us and tug at us. We need to clear our own temple, the temple in our hearts. We must get rid of all those desires and temptations which distract us from doing what God would have us do.

We must renew our way of thinking, setting our minds and our thoughts and our hearts on those things above. We take on a new way of thinking – thinking in Godly terms, thinking on holy matters, and desiring to do the good and perfect will of God.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you allow yourself to be transformed?