Renewal of the Mind

Dear lovely people,

The Bible in Romans 12:2 states “Do not conform 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.” I don’t want to preach a sermon today but then, what do we get from this all powerful statement?

Renewing our minds is not simply "changing" our thoughts, but actually putting off the old, negative thoughts as well as putting on God's Thoughts.  In other words, we can't just say to God, "Lord, give me Your Thoughts," and somehow expect Him to "automatically" give us His Mind.  We must first put off our own self-centered thinking by confessing, repenting, and then giving it to God.  At this point, we can then put on the Mind of Christ. Do I sound like a Pastor? Never worry my wife is.

“When you do what you fear most, then you can do anything” Says Stephen Richards. It pays to set about transforming your mind irrespective of the risks involved for reasons I must tell you now. The mind plays an important role in achieving every success and goal be them minor or major goals you have set for yourself. With minor goals, you know what you want to achieve, but when it comes to major goals, it is different. You might have a vague idea, but this is not enough.

To accomplish anything, and to use the power of your renewed mind, you have to know exactly what it is you want to do. In order to focus your mind on a goal, you need a clear and well defined goal. How do you go about that? 

You start by renewing your mind, cleaning it of the layers of mediocrity, self-denial, self-hate, self-underestimation, lack of self-confidence, fear of risks and so on, that negative people, the media and the process of enculturation have implanted into you. You equally have to start making use of the tons and tons of useful information you collected daily.

Warren Bennis says, “We seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven’t devised a means of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows.”

There is a wealth of information at our disposal today on the latest discoveries on how to become successful and happy in life. While we enjoy reading about these findings and expanding our intellect, how many of us actually apply these concepts in our daily living? We can either drown in this information or turn it into a lifesaver by extracting its practical knowledge and when it comes to renewing your mind, I must say that God has already done His part. And it is clear that He will not do your part.

You must accept responsibility for renewing your mind. Self-discipline in our thoughts is a critical element of renewing our minds. After all, it is your mind! We need to learn to think like God thinks. We need to get rid of our sinful attitudes, our negative, critical ways of thinking, and our selfish thoughts. Much of what we think about is directly connected to what we are feeding into our mind. If you put mediocrity into your mind-that is what you will end up thinking about. And what goes into your mind affects your whole life.