A Metamorphosis: God’s Transformative Work As We Embrace His Plans For Our Life

What would life be like if we embraced rather than fought the transformative work the Lord wants to do in our life? What would your life be like if you truly, earnestly sought the Lord for what His desires and plans were for your one life— what His fully encompassing will for your life was? Well, we are going to dive into the beginning of Romans 12 today to try to understand more fully what this looks like and why it’s important.

Romans 12:1–2 (NASB): “I urge you brethren…present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The word prove in verse 2 denotes the idea of testing, examining, approving the will of God. To examine or test something is to carefully work at something to understand and get it right. It is not going to be a hasty process. The descriptive words later in the verse of good, acceptable, and perfect indicate a highly focused seeking and studying— in order to know the will of God.

The word “perfect” comes from a Greek word that actually denotes full-grown, mature, complete, the final end and completion. With this understanding, the will of God that we are seeking to know is fully mature and figured out. He may not reveal every piece to us but will reveal the part we need to know right then as we seek Him— that’s where the faith and trust part will come in— not fully knowing but allowing Him to lead.

The way we get to finding out and approving or testing the will of God, knowing it completely/having mature knowledge of it is through a transformative process within our own hearts and lives. We are called to not conform to the way the world does life but be transformed as through a metamorphosis- a changing of the inner part of us- a changing & renewing of our mind- changing our reasoning and inner intuition and place of reasoning within ourselves— It is a changing and metamorphosis of one’s inner place of intellectual reasoning so that the person can know the will of God for their life.

To present your body, your life, to the Lord as a sacrifice or offering of service to God— This is a submission to God’s plans, a laying down of your own plans, a complete and utter surrender to Him and what He would have for your life. It is truly the idea of “going all in for God”.

What would your life be like- what would my life be like— if we truly laid down all that we thought our life should be in order to allow God to do a metamorphosis within our minds and hearts so that we could live our life for Him and truly know fully and completely His good and acceptable and whole will for our life? To not wonder and strive in our own power but to be renewed in our mind and life through the Holy Spirit within us? It truly would be a spiritual act of worship as verse one says, an act of submission to the One true God who desires good things for us and has been preparing them in advance for us— It would be a pressing into full trust of a good Father over us— who will lead us and guide us and be so gracious to us. It will be a place of true humility and end of striving to make oneself look good to others or even to fight for your rights, because you don’t need to— God’s already got your back. He is your Defender, Your Rock, Your place to go to and be sheltered from the storms of your life. He will be your strength in the storms and your comforter through each and every difficult life circumstances. This is a place of trust and sweet communion and dependence on God, and a rightful ordering of One’s life, in the only way that brings fulfillment, purpose, and lasting peace— something we all strive for in this life. Asking God how He would have us go, how we should order our day, our life, our steps is a posture of humility and posture of community— communing with the Father who already is going ahead of us and preparing the way as we seek Him, as we trust Him, as we present our lives to Him, as a living sacrifice or a living posture of service and dependence on Him— letting Him call the shots in our life. It is counter cultural. And yet, God has always been that. If you read about Jesus in the gospels, it will be evident He was always about God’s way, not the way the culture or people around Him had always been doing things. His way leads to life and fulfillment and lasting peace.

Enter into this prayer with me:

Help me Lord lean into your renewal and transformation of my heart and life and purposes and focuses— help my desires and plans align fully with You. Help me hear your voice, your leading in my life. Help me lay down what is not of you— in order to seek you and know you and be complete in myself. I trust you Father. Thank you for your love and grace and mercy. Give me wisdom to walk in your ways today Father. Amen.

I hope you were encouraged by this teaching today and the Lord stirred something within your heart. Respond to that stirring and talk to God about it. He’s right there with you and waiting to hear from you.

Be blessed today friends!

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