Renewed mind
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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.”
Romans 12:1-2 NKJV
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Romans 12:1-2 MSG
A- The mind is a very powerful instrument.
The average person can have over 10,000 thoughts in a day, and when we can’t sleep the mind goes on overdrive. This is why we must be careful what we take in as our minds have a photographic memory, especially when people meditate on lustful things, such as pornography, this is so evil.
Those images get down to our subconscious files and we begin to meditate on wrong things, and worse, those images come out in dreams and nightmares.
Every person who is not born again will have a negative mind because they are under the world’s dominion and are influenced by the media, his desires are not for Christ but to please the world. Yet “Stinking thinking” is not just what the unsaved has, the believer can have it too if he/she is not careful.
The mind is a very important instrument, and we must train it to think like the Lord does by renewing it with the Word of God. Value His Word, spend time memorising it.
B- Be very careful with what you say and be careful in what you meditate.
It has been proven that a lot of sickness is psychosomatic, it starts in the mind and as you believe it, it develops.
One of the thoughts that are very damaging is the “P.L.O.M. disease,” Poor little old me. Thinking you are a victim will get you nowhere, if you are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, you are a Victor! By renewing your mind, you will begin to live like one.
Wrong thinking can set in very quickly, and it can lead to death, see what James 1:14 and Romans 8:6 says:
James 1:14-15 NKJV
“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
Romans 8:6 NKJV
“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
C- Renewing the mind is a process.
Renewing the mind takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight, you must be diligently and consistently applying God’s Word. Reading a verse here and there during the week or taking note of the passages read in Church on Sunday is not enough to give you a renewed mind. You must invest time, effort, and prayer. This is something you need to do, and no one else can do it for you.
Why must we get into the Word of God?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
John 1:1-5 NKJV
Because Jesus is the Word and only Him can bring life and words of life to us.
A renewed mind is very powerful because the words we say are an overflow of our thinking. See what Proverbs 18:21 NKJV tells us: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
D- Things that the renewed mind in Christ thinks.
Read the following passages to discover what we must think upon:
Philippians 4:8 NKJV
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
Colossians 3:1-10 NKJV
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
E- Going into maturity
One of the thinking patterns we must renew is the thinking that we are weak and insignificant. We were saved by Christ to live righteously, and He has assigned things to do for us. We are not called to live just reformed lives, a few changes here and there, but a transformed one. A transformation done by the renewing of the mind. This can only be done by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit when we fully surrender to Him. Yes, it is true that we are saved by grace, it’s a gift of God, not of our own doing; but after we receive salvation, there is a grace given to us to labour, Paul says it like this:
1 Corinthians 15:10 NKJV “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
The grace given is not for us to sit down and not do anything, it’s a grace to work in the harvest bringing people to Christ. The Lord Jesus taught us in Matthew 9 to pray to the Lord to send labourers, we are those labourers. Never try to do it in your own strength because you had a good idea. Make sure you are listening to the Lord and maintain a close intimacy with the Spirit of the Lord through prayer.
Matthew 9:38 NKJV
“Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”
Lastly, be ready for His coming! Jesus will come soon and take those who are ready, but if you are almost ready you will be left behind. At the time of harvest, a farmer only collects the fruit that is ready. Are you ready? Begin by changing your thought patterns today, and plunge into God’s Word.
Prayer:
Lord,
Forgive me for wasting time and not being diligent renewing my mind, I repent of all the wrong thoughts and outside influences I have allowed to get into me giving me wrong thinking. Holy Spirit cleanse me and as I plunge into your Word breathe life into me in Jesus Name. I surrender my heart, mind, and soul to you, use me for your glory and use me to bring people to you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
More Scriptures to meditate:
Read Romans 4:16-25, Romans 5:9-11 and Romans 8:15-21 the Message translation.
Karina Maile