Renewing Your Mind

2017-01-21

Whatever that goes into our minds really affects who we are and what we do. If we fill our minds with a lot of terrible, ungodly things, we will likely live the same way that we did before we were saved. However, if we fill our minds with the Bible, we will believe and live out the truth every day. As born again Christians, we are to renounce our sinful ways and serve God.

The Bible reads:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12:1-3)

Let us examine some of the truths here:

  1. We are to be a living sacrifice. People performed sacrifices in the Old Testament that involved the slaying of animals. Unlike these dead animals, we are living sacrifices, but our old selves have died with Christ. We are now new creatures (Galatians 2:20)! We may look the same and feel the same, but we have a new nature. Our old nature was all about sin and what we wanted to do. The new nature is about service to Christ and to each other. We have to believe that the sinner in us was crucified with Christ, and we have new life to live.
  2. We are not to be conformed to this world. The entire world is a very wicked place. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). We were saved out of the world, but still live in it, and therefore can be seriously affected by it, if we allow it.
  3. We are to be renewed in the mind. All our Bible reading, prayer, and going to church has a role in this. Putting the right things into our minds and being around the right people can renew our minds. Why do we renew our mind? “That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). You will have a clear mind and the spiritual discerning as to what God really wants in our lives.
  4. We are not to be self-centered. One last part to renewing our minds is not being self-centered. Thinking of ourselves too highly is contrary to living the Christian life, and is how we become conformed to the world.