Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind

Transformed Into What?

Here’s something easy to miss, and it changes how the whole verse reads.

There’s a striking connection between two verses in Romans, and both use the word conformed. In Romans 12:2, we’re told not to be conformed to this world. But four chapters earlier, the same word describes something God is doing:

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Romans 8:29 NKJV

Put the two verses side by side:

• Romans 12:2: be not conformed to this world.
• Romans 8:29: be conformed to the image of His Son.

So the question was never whether you’ll be shaped. Every one of us is being shaped by something. The question is what you’ll allow to shape you.

Every day we choose what we let into our minds: the music we play, the shows we watch, the feeds we scroll, the voices we listen to. Some of them carry the world’s pattern, and Scripture is honest that an enemy is at work behind it (Ephesians 2:2). God’s Word carries the truth that sets us free.

The world tries to press you into its pattern from the outside. God is shaping you into the likeness of His Son, from the inside out.

That’s what “be transformed” is aiming at: becoming more like Christ, the person you were created and redeemed to be. It’s more than better thinking or better behaviour.

When You Can’t See It Yet

Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, I’ve been a Christian for years. Why do I still feel the same?

I asked that question for years.

My name is Daniel Lafleur, and I founded Renewing Your Mind Discipleship Ministry. When I accepted Christ, a number of ungodly desires I’d carried were removed instantly. Certainly not all of them. After my baptism, more of the same happened, though perhaps not to the same degree.

Then my growth seemed to level off. For well over a decade, I felt like I was on a plateau. I knew God loved me, but I didn’t feel it. I knew and believed His truth, but I wasn’t sure how true it was for me. That gap brought real tension, and some doubts.

I was willing, and I was trying. Looking back, I was trying to become a better Christian on my own: working on what I thought needed work, when I thought it needed it, in my own strength. And willpower is finite. God was always there, encouraging me. I just wasn’t following His lead.

As I wrote in my book:

“I realized that just because I didn’t ‘feel’ God’s Word to be true for me that didn’t make His word any less true. It simply demonstrated how out of alignment I was with Him.”

Daniel Lafleur, Renewing Your Mind: Living Life Intentionally (opens in a new tab)

What changed was learning that renewal is a partnership, with God in the lead. He does the transforming. My part is to follow Him on purpose: to choose His Word over my feelings, to obey when He shows me something, and to keep going, day after day. We pull in the same direction, at the same time, over time. Before, I was trying to change myself. Now I follow His lead with everything I’ve got, and He does the changing.

I’ve also come to accept that this process won’t be finished in my lifetime. Sanctification, including the renewing of our minds, is something we walk out daily: accepting His leading, and answering His call with persistence.

And I hold on to this promise:

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”

Philippians 1:6 NKJV

God finishes what He starts. Your part, and mine, is to keep walking with Him, in obedience to His leading, one day at a time.