IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Do Not Conform to the Pattern of the World

Date: Jun. 21, 2023

Passage

Romans 12:1-8 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul exhorts the readers to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. God wants us to offer ourselves to him. We many times are hesitant to offer ourselves to God. We would rather hold onto our life, dream, wealth, and plan for ourselves rather than offer them to God. Verse 2 commands us: Do not conform to the pattern of this world. It is easy to conform to the pattern of this world. We tend to follow popular ideas, popular ways of living. When people of this world indulge in material gains and pleasure-seeking lives, we are tempted to follow them, too.

However, Paul is warning us not to do that. He says, “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This means to repent. We need to quickly repent and turn back to God, even when the people around us seem to be enjoying their lives patterned to the world. . People of Noah’s time were getting married and given in marriage according to their fleshy desires and following the popular ideas of that time. But they all perished in the flood.

Prayer: Prayer: Lord, please guide our hearts and minds, so we may not follow the pattern of this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

One Word: One Word: Do not conform to the pattern of this world.

Daily Bread

The End of Northern Israel

2 Kings 17:1-23

Key Verse: 17:15

They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.

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