Rise & Renew
It starts with your mind.
If you haven’t read Romans… do it. Stay there for a few weeks. There is so much goodness in that book. It’s my absolute favorite, and you should see my Bible; the colors, markups, and underlines everywhere. It is well-loved to say the least :)
Romans 12 specifically has been heavy on my heart lately. And when that happens, I’ve learned to pay attention, because it usually means the Lord wants me to slow down and sit with it. Read it, pray through it, let it do its work.
So that’s exactly what I’m doing this week, and I’d love for you to join me. Pull up Romans 12 and just read it slowly this week. Let’s do it together.
Which brings me to where we’re headed next here on Daily Daughter.
We are wrapping up the last chapter of summer, and I can feel the shift of a new season coming. And before we step into fall, I want us to do one thing intentionally… renew.
We’re stepping into Rise & Renew, a few weeks of focusing on what it means to renew our minds, our bodies, and our souls before the new season begins. And it all starts here, in Romans 12
In Romans 12, Paul reminds us of something really important: our minds and bodies are not our own. And he gives us very clear direction on what to do when we find ourselves following the world rather than following Jesus.
Romans 12:1-2 says:
”I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Now, Paul doesn’t say maybe don’t or you probably shouldn’t. He says, “Do not be conformed to this world.” That’s a command.
But he doesn’t stop there; he pivots immediately to the but. Be transformed. What were once old ways of thinking become new. The Greek word for “transformed” here shares the same root as “metamorphosis,” which is a complete change. Not a tweak. A total renewal into something new.
And renewal means exactly what it sounds like, to give new life, freshness. What once was stale, worn out, shaped by the world is made new again.
Here’s what’s important: it all starts in the mind.
If your mind isn’t right, everything else follows. The mind is a powerful thing. If you constantly feed it negativity, your life will start to reflect that. It becomes hard to find the good when your mind has been trained to look for the bad.
I used to have a podcast called Smile for 2 Minutes because it’s been shown that if you’re in a bad mood and you simply smile for two minutes, your brain starts to believe you’re happy. Once you move the muscles, your mood then follows. The mind leads everytime.
Now imagine what happens when you consistently feed your mind the Word of God. When you stop letting the world narrate your worth and let Him speak instead.
Paul closes the verse with this, “that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Not your will. Not what you think is best. But what the Lord knows is good for you. His good, His acceptable, His perfect.
A few questions to sit with this week:
Are you living a life that looks more like the world than like Jesus?
Are you more focused on worldly standards than on what God says is good?
Are you chasing what everyone else is doing, or running toward what God specifically created you for?
Renewing your mind starts with coming to God. It starts with opening His Word. It continues by running to Him daily and shutting out the noise of what the world says is good, enough, or perfect.
There is no one perfect except our Father, and He made you. He created you specifically and intentionally. Can you take that in for a second?
Knowing that truth, you can set your mind on things above.
You can trust that His plan is better than your own.
You can stop chasing trends and copying what the world is doing.
You can stop comparing yourself to everyone around you.
You were made for more. And your mind was made to be consistently renewed and transformed, especially when your flesh tries to take over.
Let’s rise and renew, one day at a time.
Love,
Katie Jane 🤍