Welcome back, everyone! Last week we discussed What Does the Bible Say About the Mind? One of the points was the Bible says to renew your mind, so today, we will talk about how you renew your mind exactly. There are many ways we can renew our minds, which all involve ingesting God’s Word! Renewing our minds include getting to know God more and changing our ways and our thoughts to mimic His! So without further ado, let’s get to it!
Listen to the Word!
You can never grow in your Christianity if you’re not consuming the Word of God on a daily. The Word of God is how we understand how to live as Christians, where we get guidance and hear His voice! Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The only way to grow your faith and relationship with God is by hearing the Word of God. You’ll notice as we go through today’s blog each topic involves hearing the Word of God; because hearing the Word of God and getting revelation is what renews your mind. Reading the Word allows us to see how God thinks, how He wants us to act, and His covenant with us! From seeing that, it challenges our thinking. For instance, God doesn’t think small; Isaiah 55:9 says, “So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” So, if you’re looking to challenge your faith and grow, you need to understand your human mind is not equitable to God’s mind. Yet, as I mentioned previously, we have the mind of Christ, but you cannot know what it means to have the mind of Christ if you’re never hearing the Word! Besides physically reading the Bible, another way to hear the Word of God is by listening to sermons and teachings. There are great men and women of God who are very knowledgeable of God’s Word and are living in their divine purpose. If you want to move forward in your faith and renew your mind, it pays to listen to people who are where you want to be in faith! Don’t listen to people who are weak-minded, world minded, but listen to people who have the mind of Christ and honestly know more than you about God. That will change your relationship with God because, through that, you are hearing the revelations others had, getting new insight and perspectives about God’s Word. So, try to listen to one sermon a day and read a verse a day, and that will get you more engaged with God’s word!
Speak the Word
Our words are powerful, and when it comes to renewing your mind, your words are a vital tool! The way we talk about our lives influences the way we think about our lives and how life goes! Did you know what you say has a real-life effect on you? So be careful of what comes out of your mouth! It can be good or bad, and God will honor what you say about yourself and your life. In Mark 11:23, Jesus says, “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Jesus says right here; you will have what you say! So you must think before you speak, do I want this to happen to me? Because it will, whether it is good or bad! If you speak faith-filled words, you’ll have things come to you by faith; if you talk about doubt, you will experience disappointment and failure. This is why you must speak the Word of God! Speak God’s will over your life, not the enemy’s, not yours, because your plan will never be as good as God’s!
Furthermore, Proverbs 18:21 says, “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” So, you can literally speak life over yourself or death; you can speak prosperity and greatness or failure and disappointment; the choice is yours. Part of renewing our mind is renewing our speech and the things we choose to say, but how do you know the right things to say? The Word of God. The Bible will tell you what you should be saying over yourself; for instance, Peter 2:24 says we were healed, so say that! Don’t say you’re not healed, because it doesn’t say that anywhere in the Bible. If your words do not align with the Bible, consider changing how you talk, and I promise you, you will see improvement in your life. As you change the way you speak, it will be that much easier to renew your mind to be more Christ-like!
What Do You Consume?
As you consume God’s Word more and more, you will begin to speak it! And anything you consume a lot of will start to show in your words! For example, if you watch youtube videos about fashion all the time, you may start using a lot of fashion jargon. Matthew 12:34 says, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”, So, what’s in your heart? Greed? Generosity? Lust? Love? I may not know it, but if I were to speak to your for five minutes, I could figure it out. Pay more attention to what you talk about, and if it’s not something God would be pleased with, consider changing your interest in that particular thing. One thing I will say that I won’t go into depth about now is everything has a spirit attached to it. Not all spirits are evil, but you must consider the spirits in the things you watch and listen to and determine if they are Godly spirits or ungodly spirits. For instance, porn carries the spirit of lust, and if you watch it enough times, you will start engaging in premarital sex, which draws you away from God.
Every time you engage in a hobby or activity that is not God-approved, you are chipping away at your mind, which, if I can remind you, is the mind of Christ. These things stunt our growth, and we will remain stagnant; the only thing that can move you forward is the word of God. Colossians 3:12 tells us to set our minds on things above. To renew your mind, you must set your mind on things above. Now that doesn’t mean you have to listen to Christian music and sermons all day, but be mindful and check in with God if what you’re listening to or watching is offensive to Him and your relationship with Him. Once we get rid of all worldly hobbies and activities in our lives, like partying, drinking, porn, smoking, sex, etc. God can finally use our minds the way
He wants. He can use our minds to create new things for the Kingdom; it could be a book, a melody that has never been sung, a God-inspired dance, and more! Be careful as to what you set your eyes and ears to, God has better use for them, and that will benefit Him and you! God has great plans for you; it is your job to find out what it is and to do that, you must be in the Word! As my first point, you need the Bible to renew your mind, and everything else will follow suit!
Have a Faith Outlook
What you watch and listen to can have a significant effect on the outlook you have on life. Well, as Christians, we must have a God outlook! And where do we get a God outlook? You guess it! The Bible! By having a positive outlook, we are creating a better world for ourselves! It can be hard trying to have a positive outlook, but that is a part of renewing our minds. Because we walk by faith and not by sight, as stated in II Corinthians 5:7. So, it is more than just being positive; it’s taking the Word of God and applying it to your life. It’s putting God’s Word above your situation and choosing to see God’s side. You must see your case through the Word of God, which always promises us victory! Some people find this hard to accept, as accepting defeat has become normalized in society. But let’s normalize victory, winning because we are conquerors! Proverbs 10:28 says, “the hope of the righteous is gladness,” Psalm 23:6 says, “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” and Proverbs 10:24 says, “The desire of the righteous shall be granted.” I want you to take a moment and think about what those verses have in common. Now, do we have to figured it out?
Each of those verses have a sense of victory attached to it. Not defeat but straight wins for the believer. You should expect goodness, gladness, and God to grant you your desires. Now, does that entail failure at all? No! Because Christians are to expect goodness! We are to expect to win, and you will get what you expect! So change the way you think and start to think and believe that you are victorious in every aspect! Renew your mind by thinking by faith and not by sight because as you do that, you start to take after the image of God! We are God’s children, and we are to mirror Him, so as we renew our minds, we are just becoming more like our father!
I hope this blog post gave you insight into how to renew your mind and become more like God. The more we mirror God, the better off we are and the better off the world is; I hope this helped, and God bless!
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