Friday, March 01, 2013
What, if anything would you change about yourself? I believe most people think of changing something on the outside first. Like, I would like to be skinnier. Or taller. Or in better shape. Or have a different hair. I believe few people respond with, “I would like to change the way I think.”
Romans 12:2 reads, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
In the Message - 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 recognize 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.
The most important change a person can experience is the way one thinks. Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (KJV). Our thinking determines our character. Renewing our mind is something that the Spirit of God does in a person as they abide in the Word of God. The Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that “we are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” In order to change our thinking we must rely on the Spirit of God.
Let me share with you five ways to renew our thinking:
1) Realize I need transformed thinking. We all do. Eph. 4:17-18 describes what we are apart from transformed thinking. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
2) Depend on the Holy Spirit to accomplish transformed thinking. Titus 3:5 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the renewing agent. We cannot make ourselves new it’s a divine work. Humbly rely on Him.
3) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you spiritual understanding to test and approve the will of God. Colossians 1:9 – Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
4) Spend meaningful time in God’s word – Jesus said, (Mt. 4:4) Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The Bible was given to transform not to inform.
5) Stay focused on God’s glory – (2 Cor. 3:8 and 4:16-18) Being transformed in thinking does not come from looking at the fleeting glory of the world, but comes from looking at the eternal glory of God. We become what we behold. There is no other way to become like Christ in the world that to behold Christ in the Word. And the person that does behold Christ in the word, doesn’t conform to culture and he or she has the ability to know and value God’s good and pleasing and perfect will and that’s most important in life.
What would you change about yourself? I pray that all of us would desire to allow God’s Spirit and God’s Word to change our thinking.
Romans 12:2 reads, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
In the Message - 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 recognize 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.
The most important change a person can experience is the way one thinks. Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (KJV). Our thinking determines our character. Renewing our mind is something that the Spirit of God does in a person as they abide in the Word of God. The Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that “we are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” In order to change our thinking we must rely on the Spirit of God.
Let me share with you five ways to renew our thinking:
1) Realize I need transformed thinking. We all do. Eph. 4:17-18 describes what we are apart from transformed thinking. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
2) Depend on the Holy Spirit to accomplish transformed thinking. Titus 3:5 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the renewing agent. We cannot make ourselves new it’s a divine work. Humbly rely on Him.
3) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you spiritual understanding to test and approve the will of God. Colossians 1:9 – Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
4) Spend meaningful time in God’s word – Jesus said, (Mt. 4:4) Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The Bible was given to transform not to inform.
5) Stay focused on God’s glory – (2 Cor. 3:8 and 4:16-18) Being transformed in thinking does not come from looking at the fleeting glory of the world, but comes from looking at the eternal glory of God. We become what we behold. There is no other way to become like Christ in the world that to behold Christ in the Word. And the person that does behold Christ in the word, doesn’t conform to culture and he or she has the ability to know and value God’s good and pleasing and perfect will and that’s most important in life.
What would you change about yourself? I pray that all of us would desire to allow God’s Spirit and God’s Word to change our thinking.
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