Be Transformed
I like my church!!
That might be a true statement for some, but I would put money on the fact that at one point or another you have felt the very opposite.
You don’t like your church.
You don’t like the people in your church.
You don’t want to go to your church anymore.
If you were in charge, you would be doing things differently.
Maybe you have even acted on those feelings. Maybe you actually left a church you didn’t like and went to another in hopes that they would do things “the right way”, at least in your eyes.
Maybe you are still in that church, but you wish you weren’t.
And maybe you have no idea what I am talking about because you love your church and it is absolutely amazing and there never has been an issue.
If your feelings align with the latter it is probably because you are not serving in your church. Sometimes you don’t see the ugly side of the church until you are really in it.
We all have our own ideas of what is “right”. We all look at preachers and ministers and leaders and have our own ideas about what those people should be doing differently.
We have our own ideas about how everyone else should be living their lives, too.
Everyone is doing it wrong, besides you.
But…… are you correct in your thinking? What makes your way the “right way?”
This morning I was having a crazy battle within my mind.
My husband and I were leading worship and things weren’t going according to plan.
I also was attempting to reconcile the fact in my mind that I am not a very good singer, but for some reason I am leading worship. The thought of standing in front of 100 some people and singing poorly makes me feel embarrassed.
I was feeling all sorts of things and to top it all off I was questioning why we were even still here. I’m not in love with my church anymore. I don’t know that I am even in “like” with my church.
Like the stubborn brat that I sometimes am, I just didn’t want to be at my church this morning, yet there I was.
I was still festering some anger about decisions made over my head and lack of leadership.
All these things made me mad.
After practice I went to get my kids from the nursery and I was crying.
My older daughter asked me what was wrong. I told her I was angry, but instead of yelling at people in my anger, it was coming out in tears instead.
In my anger and frustration I remembered a verse I had read to my husband on the drive to church very early that morning.
On the way to church my husband and I found out someone on the worship team was backing out for the day. Now we were short a key player. Thankfully one of the other worship leaders was willing to step in and help. Problem solved.
However, it had me thinking about this verse that I had been meditating on for awhile now.
“…that you may know the perfect will of God”
What is the will of God? Is God moved or disturbed by the situation? Did I need to cry out for help and beg God to “fix this” problem or did my mindset need to change? Was I making a big deal of something? In the grand scheme of things, did this matter?
Do you know the rest of that verse? Do you know the way we find the perfect will of God?
Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
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.”
NIV
One of those fun bible recipes.
In order to get muffins you mix flour, oil, eggs, sugar, salt, milk and leavener.
In order to determine the perfect and pleasing and good will of God, you have to add the right ingredients, too.
Offer your body as a living sacrifice. - Your eating, your drinking, how you talk, how you move, how you act. EVERYTHING from your body is to be offered on the altar as a living sacrifice.
Do not conform to the world - the world thinks and acts one way. DON’T ACT LIKE THEM.
BE TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind. Let the way you think and look at the world be changed. Let your mind be different - allow your thoughts to line up with the thoughts of the Father.
Do all these things and you get muffins!
No wait. Do these things and you will be able to test and know what the perfect will of God is.
Zoom back out to me crying as I was trying to get my kids breakfast quickly between practice and the service.
Crying and remembering the verse that I had been encouraging my husband with two hours earlier.
I was letting fear in. My anger was proof of it.
I was afraid of looking foolish. I was afraid of letting people down. I was afraid of letting the LORD down.
I was making a big deal of things I didn’t need to.
“Lord, what is your will? What am I not looking at correctly?”
I took a moment to rest on the truth and scripture I knew and came to the following conclusions:
I know that I was looking at the purpose of leading worship all wrong. I was looking at it from my flesh and my worldly knowledge.
I was looking at the situation in my church from a worldly and fleshly point of view, too.
All these things making me angry were not really that big of a deal.
I was overlooking the perfect will of the LORD.
I was conforming to the world, not offering myself as a sacrifice and definitely not transforming my mind.
So I took a second and flipped things around.
I laid down my need to look perfect and right in the eyes of man. In humility, I could sing to the best of my ability and be content knowing the LORD was pleased.
I could choose to be content and humble in my church, even if it wasn’t what made sense to me. I could choose a good attitude. I could choose submission. Like Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, I could choose to serve without complaining.
That’s it. That’s the transformation of the mind.
Literally every single blog post on my site follows the same pattern:
I feel one way about something, become humble to the Holy Spirit’s correction, and then change my way of thinking. Sometimes it takes multiple reminders, sometimes one revelatory moment is all I need, but one way or another my mind is transformed.
That’s what I want for you, too.
I want you to come to a place where you learn this stuff on your own. Where you can become sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I want you to be able to discern for yourself what is from the LORD and what is of the world. I want you to stop in your tracks and correct yourself when you catch yourself heading into the wrong direction.
I want better for you.
The LORD wants better for you.
He wants better for you AND he wants you to be transformed.
By the renewing of your mind.
