What is good and pleasing and perfect?
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, Romans 12:2 NASB.
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, NLT
Q: What is the most famous question ever asked in the world?
A: What is God’s will for my life? That’s the question.
Generations come and generations go yet this question keeps coming back over and over, what is the will of God for my life?
Self help gurus tried to answer this question many times. Oprah, a well know self-help guru, tried to answer for years yet someone somewhere is still wondering, what is the will of God for me? Let’s have Romans 12:2 answer for us one more time.
Characteristics
First, God’s will is not a mystery. It is not hidden. It is not for some “special few” people. We all can know it. It is out in the open.
Second, God’s will is provable, testable, discernible
Third, God’s will is good, pleasing, and perfect. You may also say, it is good, and acceptable and perfect.
Fourth, God’s will should not be confused with what you do for a living. Self-help gurus fall short here and confuse people. Whatever you do for work to make a living might be part of God’s will for you for that work, but is not the whole picture. It is a fraction, if any, of what we’re talking about here.
What is God’s will for me?
God’s will for you and for me is about the whole man: body, mind, and soul. It is about the reason of our existence. It is not about just your work or your relationships or your moral character. God’s will for each and everyone of us is about why you are here and who you should be?
The world and it’s values and customs are superficial (shallow, cursory, surface, outward, skin-deep, trivial, exterior, casual, cosmetic). Everything we see appears to be true or real only until examined more closely. We cannot take them seriously. We cannot anchor our lives on them. Everything in the world is unstable, weak, unsupportive in uncertain times, and doomed to destruction. We need a reliable or principle support in our lives. Money, power, fame, work, family, honor, education, cannot give us that support.
Romans 12:2 warns against adopting the patterns and behaviors prevalent in the secular world, “Do not be conformed to this world.” This world’s values and practices are contrary to God’s will.
The word ‘conform’ in a dictionary means follow, accept, fall in with, go along with, be in accordance with, hold to, observe. Do not fashion yourselves to this world, but be transformed (transfigured) by the renewing of your mind.
The word ‘mind’ here is more than a brain :). It stands for understanding, reason, something lies deep within us. In many ways, mind and heart are the same.
1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Proverbs 1:29-31, For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Psalm 81:12, So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices
Judges 21:25, In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
We can be transformed or profound changed by the renewing of our minds. Look, man is naturally depraved. We were born in sin. We live and follow world’s patterns because we are worldly. The apostle Paul is telling us christians that we can be way more than superficial. We can be way more than shallow. We can be transfigured (not transgendered) when we are informed by the Spirit. Our external appearances should not be inconsistent with the internal form.
It is the Spirit that changes us through the Word of God. When we immerse ourselves in the scriptures, He does the transforming work in us then we are able to discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will for us. And this is God’s will for you:
– Your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
– Do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God, Micah 6:8.
– Come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:4.
– Give thanks in all circumstances, 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
– By doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people, 1 Peter 2:15.
– Understand what the will of the Lord, Ephesians 5:17.
Action:
Matthew Henry writes, “The great enemy to this renewal is, conformity to this world. Take heed of forming plans for happiness, as though it lay in the things of this world, which soon pass away. Do not fall in with the customs of those who walk in the lusts of the flesh, and mind earthly things. The work of the Holy Ghost first begins in the understanding, and is carried on to the will, affections, and conversation, till there is a change of the whole man into the likeness of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. Thus, to be godly, is to give up ourselves to God.”