Be transformed by the renewal of your mind

Guest Columnist

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Rom. 12:1-2 (ESV)

I don’t remember when I had that first ‘aha’ moment that worship did not equal music. But since I did, my views on worship radically shifted. When I teach classes on worship I give this definition of Christian worship, first stated by Warren Wiersbe:

Worship is the natural, heartfelt, emotional RESPONSE to the character, grace and works of God. (Note: no mention of music in this definition.)

In Romans 12, we see that we are to be about worship as a response to God’s holiness. We must be in a time of constant renewal in worship, being transformed by the renewing of our mind. I was teaching the MasterLife class, The Disciple’s Personality, not too long ago when Avery Willis on page 44, showed us how to renew our minds. Willis is one of my personal heroes, and not to improve on what he did – I simply made his ideas into an acrostic to make it easy to remember for my students and me:

A = Adore Christ with song (I add, do this in your personal prayer time.)

B = Bring all thoughts under His control

C = Commit yourself, daily, as a living sacrifice

D = Destroy Satan’s strongholds

E = Encourage and Enable someone in need

F = Friendship, be a friend.

G = Go to God with your troubles

H = Heavenly thoughts to fill your mind with

I = Internalize (memorize) scripture

J = Jesus’s mind – pray constantly to have ‘The Mind of Christ’

These ten disciplines are wonderful for bringing ourselves into His perfect presence and to be renewed and open to His perfect will. In that twelfth chapter, Paul talks about the will of God. In my journal, I have an ancient entry from what Oswald Chambers says about God’s will:

The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he IS the will of God . . . When we begin to ask, “What is Thy will?” There is a deviation from His will.

Isn’t it overwhelming to think that we are the will of God? If we keep our minds renewed, we walk truly ‘in the light of His Word.’ May you walk in His light, stay renewed, and be His will. (John Francis is the worship specialist for the Missouri Baptist Convention and produces MoWorship, a monthly worship podcast available at www.mobaptist.org/worship.)