Romans 12:2 ‘Don’t be conformed to this world…’, don’t adapt to this world’s external customs. The new believers in the first century church in Rome were largely Gentiles. The things that would’ve influenced them would be the very things Rome was known to embrace in its various religions, cultures and philosophies. Paul’s instruction to the new church would teach them what it is to be holy, set apart for Jesus. He was instructing them to be… different. Everything that had been, everything that they had done, everything they thought, or believed would now be filtered through the fingers of God. They would totally turn from the blood lust of the arena, the hunger for power and wealth… just a tip of the iceberg of worldly conformity. Now they would worship the One True God. Everything would change. Choosing not to conform is intentional. Is it easy, not to conform, is it easy to choose righteousness? The hardest lies to see are the ones we believed were true. Not conforming means we might lose friends, our relationships might change, social status, and… Entertainment will change. Do we miss the conformity before we were convicted of its unrighteousness? On the other hand, choosing to allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewal of our minds is also intentional. It’s not passive, we don’t just continue to do what we’re doing and wait for the transformation to happen. We choose to allow the transformation every day. Seasoned Warriors remind us when we choose to believe in Jesus, we become a target of the enemy. Psalm 27:3 “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” AHoly Spirit inspired Paul writes this encouragement, we will have a new attitude, our will is transformed by His will, we’re confident that we’ll know what His good and perfect will is, not just for everyone. but for us, His child. Do we hold back surrendering to Him because we’re afraid we’ll have to give up some aspects of our ‘conf