So today is the day to look back on the study and find your own “take home message”.  What has God been speaking into your heart about strength?  We were asked to find the Bible verse that was most meaningful  to us.  Without a doubt, for me it was: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2, ESV).  I have heard it so many times in the past, but recently I found a new version that really speaks to me.  I like it in the New Living Translation best: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom 12:2, NLT).  

Here’s why I love this verse…Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world.  We are reminded that we are a people set aside for God’s purposes: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).  Rather than “A people for his own possession”…the King James Version says that we are “a peculiar people”.  When we are not conforming to the world or copying the behavior and customs of the world, we are bound to feel different sometimes, like we don’t quite fit it…this is a feeling that is hard to get used to, but it is not as bad as it sounds to our hearts.  Feeling peculiar takes me back to junior high school – the awkwardness, the sense of something not being right.  Most of us were born needing to assimilate, wanting to fit in.  Followers want to follow the crowd.  Leaders want people to want to follow them.  But there is a separateness about living this holy life, about being wholly His.  We are following Him, wherever He leads and that takes us away from the way of the world.

Here’s why I love this verse… Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  “Let God”, not “twist yourself into knots”, not “try, and fail, and do it all over again tomorrow the same way”.  I think that what we get wrong so many times is trying to accomplish this walk, this journey, in our own strength…of course we are unable to make ourselves holy, this is futile.  Jesus’ sacrifice would be unnecessary if there was another way.  But instead, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  To “Let God” is to yield to His Hand in your life, in your spirit.  Yield is a powerful word, there are many nuances in its meaning that also convey spiritual truth: it means to give over possession, surrender or admit your own defeat (as in a battle); it means to give way to pressure or submit to something more powerful (as in physically yielding under pressure or verbally yielding in an argument); it means to give up your place to someone more superior or out of deference to them (as when one is speaking publicly and allows someone more important, or with something more important to say, to have the rest of his time); it also means to produce what you were made to produce, be productive (as in sown seed yields a crop); it means to generate profit, to produce a return on an investment; it means the energy produced or released by an explosion, especially by a nuclear explosion (TheFreeDictionary.com).  Power and energy and harvests of crops are produced by yielding to God.  To be productive, we must yield to God.  Power is created and production occurs and fruit is produced by submitting to, surrendering to, and deferring to, God and by admitting to our own defeat.  Yielding is not the way of the world – mutiny, power grabs, hostile takeovers, “nice guys finish last”…this is the way of the world.  God’s way is better.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is 55:8-9).

Here’s why I love this verse… Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Promises of newness are a welcome relief in this tired world.  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor 5:17).  While the world is temporal, temporary, our transformation is eternal and infinitely significant.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Eph 1:7).  And, while the process of our sanctification, being made more and more holy and pleasing to God, is gradual, Jesus’ redemption of us is immediate: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:3-5).  

Here’s why I love this verse… Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Our thought-life is a spiritual battle ground, our lives cannot be renewed unless our way of thinking changes.  We must protect our hearts and minds from worldly influence.  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Eph 6:10-13).  Yet we are given power and strength to accomplish this task.  God provides His Word for us, studying it can protects us from our own thoughts. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12).  And He also freely give us His Spirit who acts as both our advocate and teacher (John 16:7 and John 14:26).  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

Here’s why I love this verse…Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.   I am a planner.  I have learned the hard way that my plans do not always match up with God’s, especially when I am seeking my own will rather than His.  Sometimes I forget that the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Prov 16:9).  And God’s plan for me is good.  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jer 29:11).  God’s plan is for me to do good.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10).  But to know God’s plan for me, I must learn to listen to Him, otherwise I live in confusion or worse, disobedience.  God always speaks to me through His Word so that whatever I need to know is found there.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).  But while, reading and knowing God’s Word helps me to know His will for me, in order for me to do His will, I must yield to it…submit, surrender to Him.  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me (John 14:24-25).  

The biggest revelation to me in the last few years was that, contrary to what I thought I knew, God’s Way is the easier way.  No, it is not easy as the world sees it.  God calls us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Heb 12:1-2).  This sounds impossible some days!  On days when those sins do entangle us, threaten to strangle us…so that we are weighed down by our choices and our guilt, God seems to be at the top of the highest mountain while we are struggling in the valley.  But in a moment, with one word, we can choose life and peace and wholeness.  Yes to God (no to self).  Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:7-8).  It is our rescue, our remedy, our resolution – the laying aside of our will and the seeking of His, and of Him.  His will is usually at odds with our expectations.  We will not usually get what we expect.  God specializes in daring rescues, unforeseen solutions, counterintuitive strategies.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27).  That is why we must wait upon the Lord – because we just can’t know what He is planning or how He wants to approach things; we must simply trust that, whatever it is, His way is best.  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Prov 3:5).  He is an innovator and, of course He thinks outside the box – He invented the box!  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland (Is 43:19).

My strength?  My strength comes when I allow Him to transform the way I think so I can learn to surrender, to yield.

justAgirl…just like you