It’s the same way with our minds. To renew them, we have to remove the old thought patterns before new ones can be laid.
The world exerts a very powerful influence that touches every area of our lives. Letting the voices of the world dictate your thought life will soon produce outward results.
Your relationships, your finances and even your body can be affected. You can become so mentally exhausted that you become a casualty of the war.
A mind conformed to the world is a weary, faint mind. But a mind being renewed by God’s Word will be progressively renovated until you are conformed to the image of Christ.
The Transformation Process
The process of transformation is exciting. But there are three steps you must take for it to occur: (1) Allow God’s Word to set you apart and discipline you; (2) Set your mind in the right place; and (3) Consistently behold and reflect the Lord’s glory.
Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17:17, “Sanctify [or separate] them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.” You must let the Word of God separate you from the voices of the world.
Mary and Martha, two sisters described in the gospels who were friends of Jesus’, both had the opportunity to have their minds renewed. But their response to the Word was different (Luke 10:38-42).
Martha’s mind was distracted and anxious about many things. But Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus, the Living Word of God. In doing this, she was setting herself apart as a disciple.
A disciple is one whose mind is being disciplined and renewed. Mary was being transformed by sitting at the feet of the Word of God.
As you obey the Word and choose to “set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2), you’ll become less and less conformed to the world’s patterns and its voices. It is not a “quick fix,” but you will experience a progressive improvement in your mind.
You will discover that the voices fade away and the Word of God takes preeminence in your mind. You’ll start living 2 Cor. 3:18: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
God’s plan is for you to win in this age of terror and start reflecting His glory more and more!
There is a double cure for the doubly weary mind the writer of Hebrews 12:3 warns about. Isaiah 26:3-4 contains the cure for this overwhelming mental fatigue: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
In the Hebrew language, “perfect peace” is a double word, “shalom, shalom.” Shalom means health, happiness, well-being, peace, prosperity, safety and soundness. It covers every area of your life—mental, emotional, physical, relational.
The peace of God prevents your mind from giving in to fear and dread. A person who trusts the Lord has a steadfast mind. Here the word for mind means more than just your ability to think. It includes your creative imagination.
In the Garden of Eden before the fall, Adam and Eve heard only one voice, that of their Father God. Can you imagine how clear and steadfast their minds were?
Their ability to think creatively as they managed the Garden must have been phenomenal. Never a mental block, never wanting to give up and let go of all God had given them. That is, not until the voice of the serpent disrupted their peace by planting questions in their minds.
Many Christians have a hard time thinking creatively and are unable to find solutions to their own problems, let alone come up with ways to reach others around them. Instead of fighting petty battles in your self, your home or your finances, you need to be set free to use your creative imagination.
God can give you strategies to touch cities and entire nations. When you trust in the Lord, your mind will be kept in perfect peace and your creative juices will flow!
