Do you ever change your
mind? Do you find it easy or excruciating? Depends, you say, on the
matter at hand. Makes sense, and I agree, so perhaps the better question
is, “When you change your mind, do you change what you think or how you
think?” Altering our process of thinking is a much bigger and bolder move
than simply shifting a decision, but it’s the kind of transformation our God is
all about.
“Do not conform any
longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind”(Rom 12:2). As
followers of Christ who have been rescued and restored, we should be
different—different than we were and different than others are. The
perceptions, principles, and priorities of this world just won’t do for the
children of God. Every part of our being has been renovated by God’s
grace, and our new pattern for life begins (and continues) with changing our
minds. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Our new way of thinking
results in a new way of living. “Be made new in the attitude of your
minds,” we’re instructed in Ephesians 4:23—a reminder that not just our
thoughts but our thought process should be modified. For example, instead of
simply thinking, “I should be kind,” when someone is rude and wrong, we think
about why we should be kind—to accurately and authentically reflect Christ and
to show love to one who might not feel very loved. When a desire is not
granted and we are disappointed, we not only think, “I should trust God,” but
we also think, “My Father has proven His faithfulness over and over. I
believe, even as my heart breaks, that He will provide for my needs again and that
somehow He knows what is best.” A renewed mind thinks about life, with
all it triumphs and trials, from a kingdom perspective.
This process of mind
renewal seems like tough and trying stuff, but God’s Word is the key to the
conversion. When we obey God’s command to “fix these words of mind in
your heart and mind”(Duet 11:18), we discover His revolutionary power in a
way that we cannot experience in any other. I could fill pages with
verses declaring the potency of God’s Word, but I can also attest through
personal experience, that the days I fill my mind with God’s Word by reading
it, praying it, studying it, memorizing, it and thinking about it, are the
times that I see most clearly and calmly the truth of what is happening in my
life and around my life. God’s Word makes all the difference.
It is, in fact, what
changes us, for we are instructed to BE transformed—not TO transform. The
change takes places when our mind is made renewed, and our mind is renewed by
God’s Word.
The result
of this transformation is clarification. “Then you will be able to
test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will”(Rom
12:2b). We will be able to discern in the normal everydays of life,
the crazy oftens of life, and scary sometimes of life Who God is and what He
desires for us to do, to be, and to believe.
We will know God’s way when we know
God’s Word.
Let God change your mind.
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