S126P2 – Yielded to Him: in mind
Rom. 12:2
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.
I had the perfect plan. School was winding down, and I figured I would get a cushy job at a good firm. That would solve my financial problems, and I would be able to upgrade my life. I would buy a nicer car, move to a nicer house in a nicer neighborhood, and everything would be nicer. The end to all this success would be making my life my version of better. But the job offer never came, and neither did the nicer things. My idea of a life upgrade was rooted in an illusion of success that I had been taught. It was devoid of any spiritual significance, and that was the problem. I was looking at life from the wrong frame of mind, and I had no idea what was best for me.
Yielding our minds to God is about perception. A primary goal of our great enemy is to make things appear different than they are. He wants the danger to look safe, the sin to look innocent, and our enemies to look friendly. Then, when we fall for the illusion, we do not always realize that we have not gotten when we bargained for. The issue is not having the clarity of mind to discern the illusions from the truth. To yield the mind to the Lord is to agree to think as He thinks. We renew it daily because it is attacked daily. Without regular refreshment, our vision becomes cloudy, and we cannot tell what is God’s best for us. This makes it impossible to please him.
If our goal is to please God, we first must know what pleases him. We cannot fulfill his will without knowing what it is. We cannot take the steps He has ordained if we cannot see them. When we let God show us how to think like him, we also learn how to see like him. This kind of vision saves us even if we do not know the exact will of God because those who think like him will know when they are faced with that which is not of him. Withholding the mind from the Lord will only lead us to following the enemy’s will because we simply cannot tell the difference. Father, give us the discipline to renew our minds daily and know your good and perfect will.