eDevotion
Encouragement for your daily walk with God
My mother made a lot of Jello and Jello salads when we were kids growing up. Typically, she made it in 9 X 12 glass baking dishes. But when she wanted to get fancy-schmancy, she’d get out one of her molds. She could shape the Jello to look like a lot of things: flowers, grape clusters, even the State of California.
Shaping Jello is one thing, but the Apostle Paul warned against a kind of shaping that can really do great harm — conformed, shaped, or molded from “the pattern of this world” [Romans 12.2]. Molded by the world means living at odds with God’s kingdom.
Paul suggested something better. Let God transform you by renewing your mind. This transformation is accomplished by the Holy Spirit as He recreates us from the inside out. He makes us a completely new person [2 Corinthians 5.17], able to resist the world’s mold and become more Christlike.
Molded by the world isn’t merely an alternative lifestyle choice. It’s living at odds with the God who desires that all men would be saved. The more we allow God to shape us into the image of His Son, the more we learn God’s will. We begin to see ourselves and the world as He does. Truth is, it’s the path to real freedom.
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
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