Where the First Battle Is Fought

                           The first battle is fought  in our mind!

Thoughts from Michael Frost 

"When the world around us insists we be normal and behave like everyone else, what countermands those signals toward normality? Paul insists the mind is the battlefield in the fight to resist being shaped by the values of the society around us. God demands the renewal of our minds.."

       "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind," Paul says in Romans 12:2.

What Paul wanted his converts to know was that doing good was not what those around them considered good. Doing good in God's eyes was something else completely. 

Christians were to display bizarre behavior: temperance, respect, self-control, loyalty, love, forgiveness, honesty, trustworthiness and other behaviors demonstrated by Christ Himself.

How does it happen? When the Holy Spirit takes residence in our hearts, He begins the process of "renewing our minds." It is a long task.

As He renews our minds, a miracle occurs. You have probably already noticed it. 

All of life becomes an act of worship. We read the news differently. We communicate with people differently. We look at each circumstance and try to see it through God's eyes. 

What is He trying to show me here? How should I respond to this person right now? How can I show love more? How can I be the heart of Jesus --  His hands and His ears, at this moment?

That's what Paul meant in the first verse of chapter 12:

         "I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living          sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your true and proper worship."

The age of offering animal sacrifices for worship was over. Now was the time to offer ourselves - to be living sacrifices - that is the way we are to worship!

So all of our lives -- everything we think, do and say -- become  an act of worship.

And when that happens, we find within ourselves a growing sense of the greatness of God and the beauty of His love. And we see that love being offered to us in myriad ways: His daily forgiveness and supply of our needs, the beauty of His world, the glory of the sunrise and sunset, His creative activity in the animals He populated this planet with. Everything we see around us produces praise and adoration to the Creator and Savior of our souls!

All of life becomes charged with the very presence of God, and then we find ourselves wanting to offer more and more of our lives to Him as an act of praise and worship. All for His honor and glory!

And as we keep focusing on Him and His glory, the Spirit renews our thinking and we become more like Him. He actually begins to transform us into the image of the Son of God.

That "transformation" or "metamorphosis" as the Greek reads, changes us from who we are  to what He wants us to be. Just as the lowly worm is transformed into a glorious butterfly, we are transformed into His image.

I remember once watching the development of a cocoon to the emergence of a butterfly. It took about 14 days. And on that last day, the whole cocoon became completely transparent - I would see the  complete form of the butterfly eager to come out and fly away! 

I wonder if that is the way it will be for us?