We need to realize this is not an “on/off” matter. Our God may direct us to do different things at different times but there will never be any “down-time.” If the word for “present” in verse 1 means a once-for-all lifelong commitment, verse 2 tells us how we can sustain this day to day. The world has a completely different agenda. After all, its princes crucified the Lord Jesus, whose food was to “do the will of Him” that had sent Him (Jn. 4:34). And yet today’s technology makes it so easy to take in so much of the world’s ideas and values that there is a clear and present danger that the thoughts and intents of our hearts are being molded by them as never before. We must not let this happen; it is no way to discover the will of the Lord.

No, we need our mind transformed on a daily basis by reading the Scriptures and prayerfully turning them over in our thoughts under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, they will permeate our mental constitution and our lives will be changed from the inside out, like caterpillars into butterflies. We will think, speak, and act more and more like the Lord Jesus. We will not only know but put into practice God’s good and acceptable and perfect will.

Notice the words “sacrifice” in verse 1 and “mind” in verse 2 are in the singular. Yes, Paul’s exhortation is a personal matter, but it is not reserved for just a few. To know and to do the will of God should be the developing exercise of all believers and therefore a fittingly fulsome response to His great love for us. The apostle writes elsewhere, “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).