Posted on: 4th June 2026

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2 

I don’t know about you but I feel like I’m constantly being sold the idea of transformation. Whether that’s transforming my body with adverts for ways to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of days. Or telling me if I introduce this one habit, I’ll never have piles of dirty washing again. Or even, if I employ this one parenting technique, my child’s behaviour, emotional regulation and future outcomes will dramatically improve. Its everywhere, and it sometimes works (well to a point, I’m not sure I’m ever going to be on top of my laundry!!). Wanting things to change isn’t a bad thing. Needing to see improvement in our fitness, our family dynamic or households isn’t a bad thing. 

And yet, we’ve all tried something like this, haven’t we? We’ve dug really deep and gone without snacks that day, or we've stayed calm during a toddler meltdown and managed a solid week of not snoozing our alarm. However, its never quite as transformational as we might think? 

What I’m trying to say is that while there are lots of little and big things we can do to see improvement, complete transformation often seems completely out of reach. 

This is what the above passage is about - complete transformation. God is invested in our personal transformation and unlike lots of things we have tried, his way isn’t going to fall short. The passage shows us how we can be transformed - by the renewing of our mind and how to go about it - by offering our whole selves as a sacrifice to God. This leads to true transformation, of our minds, bodies and lives to be able to discern his pleasing and perfect will. By acknowledging that our will is not the best thing for us, but that God’s will is, we can offer our whole lives, not just our fitness journeys, or parenting or houses but all of it, in service of the living God. And allow ourselves to be completely transformed.