For Lasting Change, Off with the Old and On with the New


“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2 NIV)

If you want to have lasting change in your life, you need to refocus your mind.

Specifically, you need to change your thought patterns from focusing on what you don’t want to focus on to what you do want to focus on. Why? Because whatever you focus on is what you move toward.

Today’s verse gives us the blueprint to change our thought patterns: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2 NIV).

- “Do not conform …”
How often do we let other people shape our lives? God doesn’t want you to be like someone else; He wants you to be the person He made you to be. So don’t copy, don’t conform, and don’t try to be like anybody else.

- “… any longer …” 
There are a lot of things you start off doing by copying others that turn into a habit.

- “… the pattern of this world.” 
Pattern means the model of everything you’ve learned in life. If you want to change, you have to change your pattern or model of living. You need to replace the old, unhealthy pattern with a new one modeled after the life of Christ.

- “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 
Transformed is the same as the word we use for metamorphosis, the process a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. In the same way, God wants to transform you into a completely new person by renewing your mind.

How does this happen? The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:22-24, “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

This means you are going to have to do some putting off and you are going to have to do some putting on — and the putting off has to happen before the putting on. It’s just like trying on clothes in a store. Before you can try on the new stuff, you have to take off the old stuff.

You’re going to have to let go of the old attitudes, the old thought patterns, the old images that you’ve been living with so you can put on the new garments God has for you as you are renewed and made more like Christ.

Talk It Over
- What is the model of living that you have based your life on that may be unhealthy and that you need to replace? How was it perpetuated in your life?
- How do you know who God wants you to be?
- Why do you think God puts so much emphasis on our minds — our thought patterns and attitudes — when He talks about healing and moving on from hurts, habits, and hang-ups?

~ Written by: Rick Warren ~
~ Modified by: Oleg Fabyanchuk ~

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