Romans 12:1-2 KJVS
[1] 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. [2] 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.
We present our living sacrifices to God through praises to Him, through good deeds, and through compassion toward the hurting. We stop being conformed to this world and become conformed to the teachings of Christ. Today I ask you to listen closely as we look at being transformed through renewing our minds.
Our usual meanings for the verb renew are restore, replant, or re-supply. The Greek word used in our passage means to make a complete change for the better. Our transformation into a disciple of Jesus takes place as we completely change how we think.
You’ve heard me say many times that what we put into our minds and think about will make its way into our hearts. Once it is in our hearts, it will come into reality in what we say and do.
Because this concept is a spiritual principle that always manifests itself physically, our transformation must include a renewal of how we think. Before becoming a follower of Jesus, we were conditioned to think like the world and, therefore, conform to the world. Once we repent and are forgiven, our thinking must change so we can conform to the image of Christ.
We became conformed to the world when we were born physically. We began to be conformed to the image of Jesus when we were born spiritually. Our minds used to be filled with the evil of the world. Now we need to replace that evil with good.
How do we renew our minds? We stop filling our minds with the evil that directs and controls the world and start filling our minds with the teachings of Jesus and with guidance from the Holy Spirit. We renew our minds by learning what Jesus taught. We then ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth and to help us change the way we think.
**Water changed with coloring. The more color is added, the more it looks like the color. The more Jesus is put into our minds, the more we look like Jesus.
Why is it so important that we change the way we think? Listen to Romans 8:5-6 NLT
[5] Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. [6] So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
The result of letting the world control our minds is eternal death, which is eternal separation from God. The result of letting the Holy Spirit control our minds is eternal life and peace in the presence of God. Our thinking influences our eternal destiny.
If we think about the sinful things of this world, our hearts become sinful, leading to sinful behavior. If we think about holiness and purity that come from Christ’s teachings, our hearts become like Jesus’ heart, leading to holy behavior and eternal life with Him.
We choose to be either children of the world or children of God. Listen to Romans 8:12-14 NLT. [12] Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. [13] For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. [14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
We can choose to belong to the family of God because we no longer have to live by the evil, sinful nature that leads to spiritual death. While that sinful nature controlled us, we were subject to all its lusts and evil desires. When we are forgiven and our spirits are reborn, we no longer have to give in to those lusts and desires. We now have the ability to reject them and choose to live like Jesus.
Our thought life also determines the family to which we belong. When we dwell on envy, hate, pride, greed, lust, profane living, anger, sadness and the other ideas promoted by the world, our actions will prove we are part of satan’s family. When we dwell on unconditional love, self-sacrifice, servanthood, compassion, joy, peace, holiness and the other things promoted by Christ’s teachings, our actions will prove we are parts of God’s family.
Allow me to give you one last bit of encouragement about how you think. Our brains are like computers. They store whatever we put into them. They will retain all the good images and ideas we put into them. They also will retain all the bad images and ideas we used to put into them. We call all those images and ideas our memories. Like a computer, those memories will always be in our brains.
In a computer, we can move files to the trash or the recycle bin, but the file is still hidden away on the computer, even when we empty the trash file.. A computer expert can find the files buried away on the hard drive when regular folks like us think they have been removed forever. An expert can even open those files and can see inside them, just like they were never deleted.
The devil is like that computer expert. He knows how to find the bad stuff in our memories. The devil will use our five physical senses like taste or sight to trigger our emotional responses to our memories. He then opens those memories of the bad stuff in our brains and tries to get us to dwell on that bad stuff. He does this to everyone.
If you have an evil memory that satan brings to your mind, you can choose to reject that memory and stop yourself from dwelling on it. You can choose to tell him to leave your mind alone. You can choose to replace that evil memory by thinking about the good things Jesus has brought into your life.
You can choose to offer the living sacrifice of praise to Jesus. You can choose to thank the Holy Spirit for guiding you. You can think about being forgiven and being filled with the presence of God and being blessed, protected and provided for by God.
When you do that, when you choose to think about the good stuff in your brain, you defeat the devil’s attempt to control your mind. As you allow the Holy Spirit to control your mind, the devil has to leave your thought processes. When you speak aloud the praises of God as you think on Jesus and all He has done in you and for you and through you, your mind becomes clearer and your thoughts become good again.
You can win the war for your mind by putting Jesus into your computer and opening His files every chance you get. You can renew your mind and enjoy the benefits of being renewed. As you renew your mind and dwell on the good stuff, your actions will become less and less like the world and more and more like Jesus. Decide today to ask the Holy Spirit to help you change the way you think. Renew your mind!