Renovation of the Mind

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Romans 12:1-2 says, “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.  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.”

     Most of us will evaluate our lives and say that we are constantly thinking about one thing or another.  When I wake up, certain thoughts come to mind and the day begins with good thoughts, and sometimes bad thoughts.  For the past couple of weeks, I have been plagued with some rather bad thoughts.  Oh, I am not going to do something  weird, it is just that certain events unfolded that have left me with confusion, distrust, amazement and just a tad bit of anger.  One of my nurses once told me, “Jus take it to the cross and leave it there.”  It was sound advice, and I do that, but it still plagues my mind as the pictures keep coming over and over.  That is why the above passage is so important to me at this time.

     The phrase that speaks to me today is, “...be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”  Mind renewal is certainly important for every believer and I would say that it is important for this old man at this time also.  We are all in the process of transformation and it is sometimes called “Christian growth” or even “sanctification.”  We have the fact stated here that our minds should be renovated, or remodeled, or simply renewed to something different from what it was before we came to Christ, or even perhaps from yesterday.  There are times in my life when I wish I had the power of Elijah to call down fire upon those who dare to mess with me.  Now, that’s not very loving is it?  Paul reminds us here that we should have mind renewal and in Philippians 4, tells us how to do it.  Have we forgotten what it says it 4:8?    Itg says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”  Hmmm.  I don’t see any fire in that verse.  I guess my other nurse was right when she said, “You sure are gullible.”  I thought  that some comments were actually a prayer request only to find out that they were not any where close to that.    So, how do I proceed?  My mind renewal begins by thinking about the things mentioned in Philippians 4:8  It seems to me to take a long time to get bad memories out of the filing system of the brain.  Sometimes the pictures return in the most inopportune time and you know that Satan is bringing them back to make you stop growing adn to make you suffer.  Praise God today on the fact that we do have the whole counsel of His Word to make it through every situation in our lives.