Renewing Our Minds

Romans 12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.




When I was growing up, Star Trek was one of my favorite shows.  Years after its medium run on the small screen, the show burst forth onto the big screen with a number of highly successful and entertaining movies.  In the second Star Trek motion picture, The Wrath of Khan; The crew of the Starship Enterprise is facing certain death as a scientific project turned weapon is set to explode and the ship does not have enough power to escape without repairs.  The First Mate, Spock, enters the engine room and sacrifices himself by exposure to extreme radiation so that the engine can be repaired and the ship and crew saved.  It was and still is one of the most emotional scenes in movie history. 


The most emotional scene in human history was when our Lord gave up His life so that many, through Him, might be saved from a horrible fate.  Paul argues in Romans that since our Savior had given up His life in our stead, it is only reasonable that we should also do likewise and be a living sacrifice ourselves.  Since Christ gave up His life for us, we should lay down our lives for Him.  Since Jesus took our place, we should take His place.  Rather than live for our own selfish desires, we should set those aside and live our lives in a way that pleases Him. 


How do we do that?  One might ask.  How exactly do we know how to live in a God pleasing manner?  What does it mean to be conformed to the world?  How are we transformed?  How is our mind renewed?  These are all legitimate questions to ask when looking at this verse.  It is a process.


When I was a kid, I used to love playing baseball.  We would go to the neighborhood sandlot and play for hours.  It was a great time.  My parents, seeing how much I liked to play ball signed me up for the local baseball league.  Once I got playing there, I saw that things were different than in the sandlot.  There were rules to be learned, techniques to perfect, situations to learn to recognize.  It was a whole new world and almost everything about my playing had to be learned or relearned in a new way for me to improve and excel as a player.  Over a few years, with constant practice, and studying the rules, I eventually became proficient in the game.  The old way that I used to play had been transformed into the new way of play by study of the game and practice.


It is the same way when someone becomes a Christian.  We have been playing around in the sandlot of life and learned a number of things we thought were correct, but now that our eyes have been opened we understand that those things were not as right as they were.  We have to be digging into our rulebook, the bible to better understand how the game is played.  We then take what we learn from the rules and apply them in our life.  The more we study and apply, the better we become.  After a while, things become second nature, or, our mind is renewed. 


While that may all sound simple enough in a couple of paragraphs, this is the area where presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice come into play.  We are going to have to alter our game.  We may be asked to play positions that we don't want to play.  We may be asked to do things we are not comfortable in doing.  We will have to take time that we would rather spend doing something else to perfect our walk.  We will be getting advice from all over the place telling us we don't need to do this or that, or distractions will arise to try and pull us away. 


Renewing of the mind is an ongoing and continual process that takes time, and effort.  We have to want it.  We have to want it more than anything else.  It may cost us friends, family, ridicule, exclusion, and as we have been seeing lately, we could even literally lose our heads for believing and practicing the christian faith.  We have to forsake all else to be a disciple of Christ. 


If we look at anyone who is a success at anything, they have done the same things.  You think Eddie Van Halen just got up one day and played so well?  Why was Michael Jordan so great?  They sacrificed their lives in pursuit of such greatness in their area of skill, as have so many others successful people.  If those successful people could give up so much for something so temporary, why should we be dragging our feet in becoming a success in something with such eternal value?  We as believers need to step up to plate, give it 110%, and offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice which would be our reasonable service so that our minds are renewed into God's way of thinking instead of the worlds.