The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 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 12:1–2

We often try to be transformed only by changing our actions but forget about the renewing of our minds.

It’s true that the more we live our lives in obedience to God’s Word, the more clearly we’ll be able to discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect in our lives (John 7:17). But our thoughts, feelings, and subconscious beliefs drive our actions (Luke 6:45). 

So we must work and will to obey him in our bodies, but we must also actively and intentionally retrain our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. To do this, we must examine our inner selves; we can’t take our thoughts captive if we don’t know what they are (2 Corinthians 10:5). We may find out that we say we believe one thing but live as if we believe something else.

Where we discover that our inner lives don’t line up with the Word of God, we can identify the lies we’re living, find Bible verses that speak truth into those lies, and have them at the ready when our thoughts, feelings, and reactions reflect the world instead of the Lord.

As we present our bodies to the Lord in obedience and renew our minds to align with his truth, we will no longer live according to the desires, fears, and false expectations of this world. We will be renewed and transformed into Christ’s image.

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