Do Not Be Conformed — The Renewed Mind
By M.T. Clark — P-2033 | 08/04/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast
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Today’s photo of a painting by the artist EJ Hill featuring hand-lettered words reading “I Found God in a Robert Cartmell” across a soft purple sky, three pink roses on a single stem, and the lattice silhouette of a wooden roller coaster running along the bottom comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this work of art at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, on April 1st, 2023.
Well, it’s Tuesday, and I share this photo of an unusual painting to remind us that the Lord loves to change the way we see things.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t find God in a piece of art. But standing in front of this one with my wife TammyLyn, I was reminded of how God has taught me over the years to spot the beauty that He has scattered everywhere, if we’ll only look for it.
God even brought me my own piece of unexpected beauty, TammyLyn, out of nowhere, to be my bride. When the Lord gets a hold of the way you see life, the whole world starts to look different. Speaking of a changed way of seeing,
Our series, “Win the Morning, Renew Your Mind,” continues today with the one command that tells us how transformation actually happens.
Do Not Be Conformed — The Renewed Mind
When Paul turns from doctrine to daily life at the top of Romans 12, he does not tell us to try harder or behave better. He tells us where real change comes from, and Romans 12:2 (NKJV) gives it to us straight, when it tells us: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Notice that Paul sets two forces against each other, and both of them are working on your mind. The first is being conformed. That word describes being pressed into a mold from the outside, the way Jello takes the shape of whatever container it is poured into.
The world is always pressing us to conform to its ways. The world system is always pouring us into its shape, and it does its work on us mostly while we are passive. You don’t have to try to be conformed to this world. You only have to sit still and let it happen. Absorb enough of its messaging, marinate long enough in its fears and its values, and you will quietly take on the world’s shape without ever deciding to do so.
The second force is being transformed. That word is metamorphoō in the Greek. It’s the same root behind our word metamorphosis, which describes a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Transformed is a change so thorough that the creature becomes something completely new.
Paul tells us exactly where that transformation happens. Transformation doesn’t happen immediately in our behavior and doesn’t come by gritting our teeth. It happens by the renewing of our minds.
Change your mind, and you change your life, because our behavior always follows our beliefs.
The reason so many sincere believers stay stuck is that they keep attacking their behaviors while leaving their minds unrenewed. A mind that is unrenewed will keep producing the same life no matter how hard our wills strain against it.
Here is where I want to carefully correct something the world gets half-right. There is a great deal of talk these days about neuroplasticity and the brain being changeable, that we can reshape our own thinking through new habits.
It is true that God has made the mind renewable, but the world tells us that we are the ones who reprogram ourselves, by our own willpower, and for our own benefit.
Paul says something better. He says that being transformed is something done to you and in you. The “Renewer” is not you. It is God, by His Spirit and His Word. Our part is real, but our part is mostly to stop conforming to the world’s ways and to present our minds to God to be made new. God’s part is the actual transformation. God is the one who changes your mind and heart to make you to be more like Jesus.
And that is a mercy, because if the renewing of our minds depended entirely on our own mental discipline, most of us would have given up years ago.
The lies we believe about ourselves are not dislodged by trying to think positively. They are dislodged by the truth of God taking up residence where the lie used to live.
That is why this is a morning matter. The mind that is not being deliberately renewed by God’s truth is being conformed by default to the world’s fear, comparison, and condemnation.
There is no neutral. You are always being shaped by something. The only question is whether you will hand your mind over to God at the begining of the day or you will leave it lying around for the world to press into its mold.
So, renewing the mind is not a self-help project. It is closer to spiritual warfare, and it is deeply personal. It involves taking the specific lie you have believed about yourself and holding it up against what God says is true and letting His word win.
It looks like reading a few verses in the morning not to check a box but to give the Spirit something true to work with in you all day. It looks like the slow, faithful exchange of the world’s story about you for God’s story about you.
I can tell you, from my own story, that this is how the Lord actually changed me. He did not begin by fixing my behavior. He began by renewing my mind about who I was and who He was, and the change in my behavior followed as my mind was made new. It was not a technique I mastered. It was God’s truth that got into my mind and heart and started doing its work.
You don’t have to stay pressed into the world’s mold. Simply present your mind to God this morning and let Him begin the renewing process. God is patient, He is thorough, and He is faithful to finish what He starts. Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction.
Keep on walking and talking with God.
— M.T.
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
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