Conformed or Transformed?

In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley

Welcome to the In Touch Devotional.

If you want a little snapshot of what the world considers "normal," just glance at magazine covers near the grocery store checkout. You will find racks of lies, rumors, indecency, adultery, and betrayal. A movie star leaves his wife for another woman. A pop-singer mom loses custody of her children because of drug use.

Young girls are taught their self-worth is based on outward appearance. These don't sound like traditional family values, do they? But as a culture, we aren't shocked by what we see. Even worse, we enjoy it. We read articles and watch TV shows about such perversion, as if intoxicated by the "glamour" of such lifestyles. We fill our homes with a million little pictures of this distorted reality and then pack it neatly away when it's time for church. Sadly, some of us are living two separate lives. The one we show God, and the one we show the world.

Romans chapter 12:2 confronts us with this contradiction head-on. As you think about the images above, consider the words of the apostle Paul.

He said "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Is your home being conformed to the world, or is it beingtransformed by the Holy Spirit? Would others see you as a blind follower of culture's ambitions? Or would they see the "good and acceptable and perfect" will of God in your life? Be honest with yourself as you talk to the Lord today.

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