Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind
In Romans 12:2, Paul gives some of the most fundamental and critical instructions regarding kingdom life: “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.”
We are not meant to live like the world lives or to think like the world thinks. One of the most essential aspects of living for the kingdom is allowing God to renew our minds. And when we begin to see him transform our lives from the inside out, chances are we will want more of him and less of the world.
So, how do we allow God to renew our minds?
We Choose the Thoughts We Entertain
Our minds are a wondrous gift from God to be used for exploration, solving problems, and making decisions. Though the human mind is minimal compared to God's sheer vastness, it is nonetheless powerful. And like the heart, it’s susceptible to corruption. What we fill our minds with and how we use them plays a significant role in our livelihoods.
If we fill our thought lives with worldly junk, we sentence ourselves to a worldly perspective and hinder God’s will in our lives. And it’s often easier and more convenient to entertain worldly thoughts. But here’s the good news: we can decide what we think about. We ultimately determine what to take in and what thoughts to entertain.
We can put ourselves in a position for God to renew our minds by thinking about him. He wants us to think constantly about the kingdom — to “set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).
When Paul wrote that to the Colossians, he knew how easy it is to stay stuck on earthly things. After all, we are surrounded by them every moment of every day. We can see them with our natural eyes, and they offer us temporary happiness. But there is an enduring satisfaction and ever-growing joy when we think about heavenly, eternal things.
God doesn’t want us to be oblivious to the world around us. He doesn’t want us to live like airheads, navigating this world without common sense. There are earthly things that we must think about while we live here, but they don’t have to dominate our thought-lives. They don’t have to control our well-being. Amid everyday life, it’s important to remember that God’s ways and principles ascend all others.
We must relentlessly search ourselves and contemplate things that are worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). We must always remember who is sovereign and look to view the world from a kingdom perspective, keeping things in their proper place in the scope of eternity.
Day and Night
The Psalms are filled with passionate writings about meditating on God’s ways, works, and instruction. In fact, David begins the largest book of the bible with these words:
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night” (Psalms 1:1-2).
Day and night. That’s the passion I want for the Lord’s instruction and wisdom. And I bet David knew that if we are busy thinking about God’s ways, then we won’t have time to walk with the wicked, take the sinners’ path, or sit with mockers.
I love how Eugene Peterson captures the heart of these verses in his paraphrase:
“How well God must like you—you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2 MSG).
Sometimes, I experience that thrill, enthralled by a passage in scripture or a thought-provoking sermon. Sometimes, I’m moved to tears by a God-inspired video. But there have been times when I prefer to go to Sin Saloon and take a stroll down Dead-End Road. And I can be as much of a cynic as the next person.
I want to get to the place where God’s instructions and opinions are all I care about, where I compare and relate every life situation to what he says. And I want to stay there. I want to be thrilled to chew on his word day and night. I’ve noticed in my life that it changes everything when I am focused on him.
We are transformed as we consistently meditate on God. Our minds have less room for sinful and worthless thoughts. Our thought lives become healthy, and our priorities fall in line with God’s purposes. We make better decisions and enjoy sweeter rest at night. As we fill our minds with truth and things of the Spirit, his good, pleasing, and perfect will becomes more evident to us.
I pray that, as we choose to think about things above, we will experience the peace and joy of a mind being renewed. I pray that God helps us to keep our perspectives aligned with his word and that our satisfaction grows deeper as we follow him.
– AWW
