Renew Your Mind
Have you ever wondered why well-intended resolutions fail? When we resolve to do something, we typically depend on our willpower to achieve it. Whether we want to improve our relationships, get healthier, earn more money, or eliminate debt, we set ourselves up for failure if we depend on our willpower alone.
Practice Makes Habits
Many people who want to lose weight think eating less and regular exercise are all it takes, and they convince themselves they can do that because it sounds so simple. But if it's that simple, why do so many diets fail?
When our hearts don't commit to change, and our bodies, minds, and souls don't align with God, we fail because we're trying something in our strength, and our willpower is not enough to change habits. Trying harder only produces more of what we have now.
Habits develop through repetition. If a child learns that throwing a tantrum gets him what he wants, he will act out whenever he wants something, and through practice, he will develop a habit of expressing anger to meet his needs. But, behaviors are external symptoms of an internal disorder, so we need to consider something else to change this child's temper habit.
Suppose I try to change this child's behavior through a time-out consequence. The behavior will reoccur unless I consider the problem causing the outburst. The root problem is in the child's rebellious heart.
It would be better to give the child a "prayer out" and discuss with the child what motivated that behavior, and then together pray for a heart change. To change the habit of acting out to meet needs, teach the child to read and memorize scripture and pray for God's help. With practice, this new habit will override the previous.
A tree grows from roots. Behavior is a branch that stems from a deep-rooted spiritual condition. Only trees with healthy roots can produce good fruit. Nourish the heart, and you will reap a harvest.
Inside Out
If we consider our "will" in the New Covenant context as "a new heart," we see God's law has not vanished but moved from external to internal. Jesus came to fulfill, not abolish, the law.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)
We no longer look outside of ourselves to the tablets of stone and say, "I should be a better person," we now say I want to do what's better because my heart now desires holy, not worldly things. The law does not exist in rules and regulations but in deeper obedience to universal love.
The Israelites practiced external behavior modification as law keeping, but that didn't go well. The New Covenant takes the Old Covenant law that only produces external changes and puts it inside our hearts.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
The commandments to obey remain, but through the New Covenant, it's motivated by an internal heart desire that says, I want to obey. I get to do this or that, not I must do this or that. And that will feel like a privilege, not a burden.
Gospel-Rooted Mindset
We can enjoy or destroy life, depending on our mindset. Many people manufacture truth to make their lives comfortable where everything becomes permissible. If we do this, we attach ourselves to fades that fuel our self-affirming distortions and perceptions about ourselves and our world, leading us on an ever-changing identity journey to nowhere.
How do we live well in a world fraught with evil, danger, and uncertainty, driven by lost people seeking power and control? We can all benefit from learning fresh ways to improve our thinking. God's Word is the truth. Renew your mind with biblical truth.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)
To what will you devote yourself? Will you surrender yourself to loving Jesus so his truth is foundational to your life, allowing you to bear good fruit, or will you fill your mind with worldly GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) information? The quality of the input determines the quality of the output as you behold what you become.
Spiritual Mind
The Bible doesn't provide an answer to every life question. We can't live in a constant moral assessment of our choices, so we need a spiritual mind to put new thoughts into practice. Don’t conform to this world rather be transformed by the renewal of our minds with God's Word.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
We let God's Word permeate our thoughts about ourselves and the world, so when something is contrary to our beliefs, we instinctively know it's not right, and like Jesus, we can say, "Get behind me, evil one!"
But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark 8:33)
We are more than a physical body with neurons. Our minds are not simply hard-wired data processing centers. Our minds have a spiritual demeanor that can perceive things and have an attitude toward them. That's why Paul tells us to renew the "spirit" of our mind to replace old habits with a new perspective.
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, (Ephesians 4:23)
Peekaboo. There's more behind the veil. Soak in the revealed nature of God through scripture, and you enter the whole-hearted mind of Christ.
