How Can My thinking start to Change My Life?

Romans 12: 1-3 says, ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.’

Renewing our minds means changing our mind set or changing our thought habits.  This concept is so powerful, that just thinking positive thoughts can change your life.  The way you view yourself and life affects how you live life.  I want to use the example of how God view us to show the thought process we must undergo so as to renew our mind.  

When we were born again, how does God sees us? Righteous (among many other things)

Why? Because Christ’s righteousness became ours.  Christ lives in us and we are now righteous.

Do we see ourselves that way?

What do we see instead? Our faults, our past, our weakness.

RENEW YOUR MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As born again believers, we must embrace ALL of who God is at the very beginning of our walk with Him. (On another note, when we share Him, we must share all of who He is also).  This means that can't say we are Christians, and not embrace God's truth about us.  We MUST renew our minds so that God's truth becomes the truth we live by.

When I was young, my concept of God was this: He loves me, He died for me, He wants me to do right-obey Him. Obeying my parents is obeying God.  Bad or negative attitudes is bad behavior, and is disobedience to God.  Life for me was one of dos & don’ts. I never formed a deep relationship with God. 

A relationship, by the way, is where two or more persons share all or some of who they are with each other.  God desires relationships, He does not want distant obedience. As adults, we believe in God but, ….The list of 'buts' is long and varied.  If we don't see ourselves being born into new life and relationship with God, then we will not see ourselves as He does. 

So, how do we renew our minds (change our minds) to think as Christ does?  Our thinking needs to change so much that we come to the place where our 2^nd birth (being born again) and what we were born into is more natural than our 1^st birth (born as baby) and what we were born into.   Lets look at what we were born into at our first and second births.

2^nd Birth                                                                                                           1^st Birth

-We are righteousness                                                                                    -We are sinners

-We see ourselves as righteous                                                                       -We accept sinful state

-Keep truth in front of us                                                                                -We follow lies

-Our minds get renewed                                                                                 -Our minds stays the same

-Become more Christ like                                                                              -We remain what we believe

Now, when we were born again, there was a shift in the spiritual realm and in our spirits, and Christ righteousness becomes ours. Why then is it so hard to walk according to the truth? Because we are constantly reminded of our weaknesses and our pass.  As Christians we have two choices before us when we are faced with our pass; one is to give into the lies, or confront the lie with the truth.  I will preceed to go through a step by step though process that we more or less go through to do either one.  

The first choice goes more or less like this:

-We know that we are righteous. This is hard to do because the enemy, through our thoughts confronts us with our pass.

- We give into reminder of our past and listen to the lies we usually believe. The enemy does this every day, every moment.

-When we give into the lies, we allow old nature to prevail.  The more we believe or give into lies, the more our old nature prevails.

-This all leads to us becoming distant from God. Remember, if you believe the lie, you are rejecting the truth.

-With persistence in these choices, we will eventually lose access to 2^nd birth blessings. 

OR

We can choose differently as follows:

-We know we are righteous.

-We therefore confront lies and reminder of past with the truth

-This allows our new nature to prevail.

-We then become closer to God

-We enjoy an uninterrupted and stronger flow of 2^nd birth blessings.

WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?

This thought process should be used in embracing all truth.  Yes life knocks us off balance or knocks us down, but we must remember that God knows all and He is not surprised by nothing.

When we are faced with the choice of old nature versus new nature CHOOSE NEW NATURE!  It is way more peaceful!