To hear Katherine Wolf speak about her journey through rehabilitation after surviving a life-changing stroke in her twenties, was a privilege. Overwhelmed and emotionally depleted, it was only when she realised, she had a choice – to view her situation positively and count her blessings, or be negative, and forever lament what had happened to her – that she broke her negative mindset and embraced the long recovery road ahead.

 

Neither option was easy; one spelt facing up to incredibly hard challenges and overcoming them positively, as she started her life from scratch, while the other meant remaining the same and believing the worst: that she was cursed, unworthy and destined to live with shame.

 

Isn’t this how we sometimes feel?

 

In today’s verse, when Paul speaks of not conforming “to the pattern of this world, but [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind” he emphasises the importance of us having control of our thoughts, to be able to actively choose what influences them, and be discerning of the Holy Spirit’s leading and allow God’s wisdom and power to transform us. In this way we choose Kingdom principles, and not the world’s clutter and clamour that opposes God’s will, distracts us from our goal, and prevents us discerning the gentle voice of the Spirit, welcoming him to change us from the inside out.

 

Inspired by the Scripture verse, “See, I’m doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland”, (Isaiah 43:19) Katherine chose to trust God and see herself as “chosen, not cursed.” God would transform her desert. She would no longer say, “What If?” but “What Is”, replaced “overwhelmed” with “abundance” and with this new mindset, began to see her way out through the “escape hatch of hope”.

 

Katherine admits that the fifteen years this endured wasn’t easy and “looked more like years of fumbling through a scene that [she] had hated starring in”; however, she now “rejoice[s] in [her] sufferings” (Romans 5:3) and will “not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11), but sees them as a remarkable inheritance to bless her people, not curse. She now embraces Psalm 16:6: “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

 

How do you respond to bad things that happen in your life? Where do you look for answers?

 

The “pattern of this world” shuns God’s principles and values and can subtly confuse us, or negatively influence our thinking, leading us into deception and despair, especially in trying times. It is only in not following its quick fixes and not buying into hollow philosophies that we take strides in the Spirit.

 

Jesus came to set us free from all bondage, to live victoriously by faith, and trust in God’s beautiful purpose for us in everything. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. (Romans 8:28)

 

Prayer: Loving Father, thank you that I can “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) as you transform me with your loving will. Amen.