“Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (Romans 12:1-2, MSG).
Sanctification involves a process called renewing of the mind. Romans 12:1-2 clarifies that the process produces a distinguished outlook on life – one that is in contrast to the typical worldly view of life. In essence, a total transformation occurs as the believer takes in the word of truth and begins to understand her circumstances through the heart of God. Her thoughts change; therefore, her words change. A transformed person speaks and acts differently. All this is possible because the mind has undergone a powerful renewing.
The ongoing work of transformation satisfies the call to be holy and pleasing to God. What results is a woman who is counter-culture, meaning she thinks and acts righteously. This is especially important for God’s daughters because the world’s message to women seeks to destroy the beauty He bestows. Culture says beauty comes from your sexuality – that only what is seen is valuable. But sanctifying truth says value stems from what is within the woman – “…the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:4).
Beautiful Daughter, I cannot stress enough that you and I must consume God’s truth and not bend to the pressures of our world. In the same way that we do not starve our bodies of proper nutrition, let’s not starve our spirit of truth. A starved physical body grows weak as muscle mass becomes the source of needed fuel. In the same way, a starved spirit loses necessary strength for standing firm against the enemy’s devices. If we will be intentional about presenting ourselves to God’s sanctifying work, then our culture’s unreasonable demands will fail to lead us into compromise.
We entertain compromise as a viable option when we think the honorable goal we have is too long in coming. We take the cheap route instead of the putting-all-my-trust-in-God-route. In asking the Father why a woman willingly entrusts herself to something or someone that will not protect her dignity, I hear him say, “She does so because she does not know my voice.” I have been there, and maybe you have too. If your regret grieves you, bring it to the light of God’s forgiveness afforded you through faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross, and let it motivate you to never-ending dependence upon his daily working to transform you by the renewing of your mind.
Article Written by: Renee Beamer
