Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. – Romans 12:2 NLT
The world talks to us a lot, and without really even noticing it we listen. The comparison, the keeping up, and the measuring up. “Oh, look at her, she already lost the baby weight.” “He got a new bigger truck and she just got that new designer purse everyone is carrying.” “Look a new social media app to join and show off how many people follow her.” “You better keep up or you will be left behind.” “You better join in or you will lose followers.” “You may have an amazing spouse at home, but here is what your old high school boyfriend/girlfriend looks like now.”
It’s easy to copy the behavior of the world when it’s front and center in our faces all day long. I don’t think we mean to fall into the same old customs and ways that everyone else is into, but without keeping diligent focus on God, it’s bound to happen because it’s all around us. I think of it this way, it’s like trying to stay dry at the pool. Even with our best efforts over on the side away from all of the water, we are bound to get splashed.
But the good news is, there is a way out. We can let God transform us into new people and change how we see everything around us. We can adjust our focus and view everything with a heavenly perspective, if we allow God to work in us. Stopping the comparison trap, the scariness of the news, the selfishness surrounding our ways, and becoming new people, it all starts by not giving it the attention it craves. The world wants us to fall in like everyone else, but God wants to make us new. We need to shake off the patterns we have fallen into and turn from the distractions to Him. By turning off our phones, opening our Bibles and praying, we can start our transformation process.
You may not even think there is a problem in this area of following the world, but once your focus is on Jesus, the more accurately we will begin to see. We can start to learn what is best for us and what we need to avoid or let go of. We can start to learn His ways and how He wants to guide us in our lives. We can start to see the best ways to live and let go of everything that held us back before, even without realizing it. As long as our eyes are on the world, we will be of the world. But when our eyes turn and our focus shifts to God, we will begin to see what we have been missing all along, closeness He has been openly extending to us. So today, make an effort to draw near to God, seek Him out, purposely put down the phone, turn off the T.V. and go to a quiet place to just be with your Heavenly Father and let the transformation process begin.
