One of the greatest revelations of my life is: I
can choose my thoughts and think things on
purpose. In other words, I don’t have to just
think about whatever falls into my mind. This
was a life-changing revelation for me because
as Proverbs 23:7 (AMPC) says, “As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he.” I like to say it like
this: Where the mind goes, the man follows.
Now God is concerned about the hidden man
of the heart, which is our inner life. Our inner
life is what we think about. And like the
scripture above says, the way we think
determines how we live and who we are.
That’s why we need to think about what we’re thinking about.
It’s so important for us to understand this
because if we don’t learn how to take every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ (see
2 Corinthians 10:4-5), we won’t live the life
Jesus died to give us — a life of peace with
God, peace with ourselves, great relationships, real joy and the ability to become all God has
created us to be. It comes down to choosing to
believe what God says (the truth) more than
we believe our feelings, what other people say
or our circumstances.
The Bible specifically talks about three things
we must do to develop a mind that agrees with
God. I want to share the benefits of each of
them.
1. “Set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things…” (Colossians 3:2 AMP).
This is the key to resisting temptation. See,
when we make up our mind ahead of time
what we will and won’t do, then when
temptation comes, we have laid a foundation to
make right choices and are more likely to
successfully overcome the temptation. For example, before you get into social situations,
decide “I am not going to gossip. I’m not going
to ruin someone’s reputation and offend the
Holy Spirit.” Other temptations may require you
to decide things like “I’m not going to eat four
candy bars today.” Or “I am not going to look at pornography on the Internet.” Or “I am not
going to hang out with people who are bad
influences.” My point here is, we don’t want to
wait until the temptation comes and then react
based on how we feel about it.
2. “Do not be conformed to this world…but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind…” (Romans 12:2 AMPC).
Renewing the mind is an ongoing process.
Every day we need to take time to study the
Word so we can purposely think according to
what it says. And we can’t keep one or two
“junky” areas in our thought life because it just
keeps us from the best God has for us. I’m not saying we have to be perfect with this, but we
need to make progress each day so we can
keep our mind renewed and grow in our
relationship with God.
3. “Gird up the loins of your mind…” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV).
You are probably thinking, What does that
mean? It’s basically saying we need to get all
the junk in our mind out of our way so we can
keep running our race in Christ Jesus and have
the victory God wants us to have. Then we are
ready for action to follow God’s plan for our lives.
One practical way we can accomplish these
three directions from God is to have a think
session every day. Just sit down and say, “I’m
going to think about some things on purpose.”
Then spend some time thinking about
scriptures that renew your mind with the truth about what God says — about His love for you,
His plan for you, how He wants you to live and
behave… Use a concordance to find verses that
cover areas you are struggling with or need to
know more about. I want to encourage you to
write some of them down and put them places where you will see them every day, like the
bathroom mirror or refrigerator.
If you will commit to set your mind on God’s
Word, renewing your mind with truth and
getting stinkin’ thinkin’ out of your way, then
you will experience the fullness of new life that
we can all have in Christ. All it takes is a little
more progress one day at a time.
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