What does it mean to “renew your mind”?

[Gatekeeper]

For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16
Our mind is Satan’s target. The Bible could not be more clear:

“I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3

Satan plays mind games with Christians using his craftiness. So we must renew our minds daily, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5

That means we must be constantly programming our minds and our spirits with biblical truth and godly thoughts. Don’t open yourself up to the ideas that can corrupt you.

Even though we will never reach perfection on this earth, we can determine, by the grace of God, to rework our mental diet so that the godly topics available to us will form the major portion of what we think about and meditate on. Listen to godly music that has lyrics that are uplifting and encouraging. Have God-centered conversations with family and friends. Set aside a time for meditation and prayer.

You can get a Christian app on your phone that will give you daily devotions and bible readings.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. Romans 12:2

Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

 

[Fellow Traveler]

I think that the only way to survive in a world which tries to slowly poison our minds is to renew our minds each day. The psalmist says in Psalm 1 that the blessed man is the one who delights in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.

When I open my Bible for personal devotions, I know that I’m looking at the very Word of God. It’s different from everything else around me. What I’m reading is in a whole different universe. I’m getting a transfusion of heavenly culture into my system. I know that if I try to make it on my own in this world, I’ll get pulled down. I’ll never be happy following the world’s plan.

But when I came to Jesus Christ, what I thought was the happiness of this world was ruined for me. I’ve got the Holy Spirit inside me, and I can never be happy unless I’m walking with Him. People can try to be happy, but they’ll never achieve it apart from the Lord. Christians can try to follow the world’s plan for happiness, but the only way they will find it is to let the Word of God cleanse and renew them.

 

[Alive]

For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16
Our mind is Satan’s target. The Bible could not be more clear:

“I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3

Satan plays mind games with Christians using his craftiness. So we must renew our minds daily, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5

That means we must be constantly programming our minds and our spirits with biblical truth and godly thoughts. Don’t open yourself up to the ideas that can corrupt you.

Even though we will never reach perfection on this earth, we can determine, by the grace of God, to rework our mental diet so that the godly topics available to us will form the major portion of what we think about and meditate on. Listen to godly music that has lyrics that are uplifting and encouraging. Have God-centered conversations with family and friends. Set aside a time for meditation and prayer.

You can get a Christian app on your phone that will give you daily devotions and bible readings.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. Romans 12:2

Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

When we come to Jesus, he’s ready to help us. He’s ready for the REAL us. He’s able to address how we feel— big or small. Nothing is too dark, bad, or scary for Jesus. His goal is to address us and renew our minds. If we sin, he will allow us to repent and be restored. If it’s tiredness and weariness, he will give us rest. Whatever we need, Jesus is willing to give.

Sharing how we feel is the starting point to getting help. When we withhold how we feel, it can be harmful in the long run. Repressed feelings are stored in our mind and life’s circumstances can cause emotions to surface. This can happen in the form of anxiety, panic attacks, depression, burnout, and the like.

Dealing with emotions can be difficult, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I’ve been there. During those times, it is important to share those emotions with God and others. We need to share our thoughts and feelings in the moment even if we think they are invalid. Here’s why: It allows us to be authentic, and as a result, we find the answer(s) or relief we need. If the shared thoughts and feelings are invalid, they can be corrected. If they are accurate, they can be comforted and helped. Either way, we receive what is needed in the moment.

To start a journey of getting well, we have to be willing to accept help. When we accept God’s goodness and the goodness of our community (friends/family/church), we allow love to cover our sins and drive out fear. To experience this love, we have to speak up.

When burnout caused me to suffer mentally, fear caused me to withhold all my thoughts and feelings. As a result, things became worse, my thoughts got loud, and symptoms spiked. After suffering in silence for weeks, I sent a text to friends and family to share my experience. Immediately after, they began to show up for me in a real way. Within an hour, two friends were there to sit with me and help me through. This taught me the importance of sharing how I feel. It allowed God to show up through those who love me.

In the name of Jesus we have the victory

 

[Rockson]

When I open my Bible for personal devotions, I know that I’m looking at the very Word of God. It’s different from everything else around me. What I’m reading is in a whole different universe. I’m getting a transfusion of heavenly culture into my system.

A very very good way of saying it.

But when I came to Jesus Christ, what I thought was the happiness of this world was ruined for me. I’ve got the Holy Spirit inside me, and I can never be happy unless I’m walking with Him. People can try to be happy, but they’ll never achieve it apart from the Lord. Christians can try to follow the world’s plan for happiness, but the only way they will find it is to let the Word of God cleanse and renew them.

Once again....very good!

 

[Lily]

For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16
Our mind is Satan’s target. The Bible could not be more clear:

“I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3

Satan plays mind games with Christians using his craftiness. So we must renew our minds daily, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5

That means we must be constantly programming our minds and our spirits with biblical truth and godly thoughts. Don’t open yourself up to the ideas that can corrupt you.

Even though we will never reach perfection on this earth, we can determine, by the grace of God, to rework our mental diet so that the godly topics available to us will form the major portion of what we think about and meditate on. Listen to godly music that has lyrics that are uplifting and encouraging. Have God-centered conversations with family and friends. Set aside a time for meditation and prayer.

You can get a Christian app on your phone that will give you daily devotions and bible readings.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. Romans 12:2

Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
ROMANS 12:2

Renewing your mind is more like undertaking the job of renewing and refurbishing an old house. It doesn’t happen quickly; it takes time, energy, and effort, and there is always something that needs attention.

Don’t fall into the trap of believing you can renew your mind by thinking right thoughts one time. To get the mind renewed, you will have to think right thoughts over and over again, until they become rooted in your thinking—until right thoughts come to you more easily and naturally than wrong thoughts.

You will have to discipline yourself to think properly, and you will have to guard against falling into old thought patterns, which can happen very easily. When it does, don’t feel bad—just start thinking rightly again. You will eventually come to the place where wrong thoughts make you uncomfortable and they just don’t fit right into your thinking processes any longer.

Let me be quick to say that you should not feel condemned if you are struggling with your thought life right now or if you face struggles in the days to come. Condemnation only weakens you; it never helps you make progress. Anytime we recognize that we are allowing wrong thoughts into our minds, we should ask God to forgive us and continue pressing on toward our goal.

Celebrate every victory because it helps you to not feel overwhelmed by what still remains to be conquered, and remember that God is very patient and long-suffering. He is understanding and will never give up on you.


Joyce Meyer, Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions

 

[Fool4Christ]

For me the most important thing about renewing my mind is having the mind of Christ developed in me. That I abide in him. To follow the direction given to me by the Holy Spirit.

Remember, Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21

In other words, not everyone was going to enter into the kingdom, even though they felt that they were walking with God. Jesus spoke of their mindset in the next verse, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’” Matthew 7:22

Yes, these ones, who felt that they were walking with God, on that day they were supposing that they were truly Christian, were in for a rude awakening. What is Jesus going to say to these ones, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:23

What were and are these ones lacking? Jesus said they were not doing the will of the Father, even though they believed they were. They were losing the battle for the Christian mind.

John also warns us, “The world is passing away, and its lusts; but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” 1 John 2:17

So we can see How important it is to understand Paul’s instruction to ‘Keep testing ourselves to see if you are in the faith. Keep examining ourselves!’
So the next question is, what do we need to do to follow this advice? How does one test whether or not they are in the faith? In addition, what does it mean to ‘keep examining ourselves after we have tested ourselves?

Your Thoughts...

 

[Fellow Traveler]

For me the most important thing about renewing my mind is having the mind of Christ developed in me. That I abide in him. To follow the direction given to me by the Holy Spirit.

Remember, Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21

In other words, not everyone was going to enter into the kingdom, even though they felt that they were walking with God. Jesus spoke of their mindset in the next verse, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’” Matthew 7:22

Yes, these ones, who felt that they were walking with God, on that day they were supposing that they were truly Christian, were in for a rude awakening. What is Jesus going to say to these ones, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:23

What were and are these ones lacking? Jesus said they were not doing the will of the Father, even though they believed they were. They were losing the battle for the Christian mind.

John also warns us, “The world is passing away, and its lusts; but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” 1 John 2:17

So we can see How important it is to understand Paul’s instruction to ‘Keep testing ourselves to see if you are in the faith. Keep examining ourselves!’
So the next question is, what do we need to do to follow this advice? How does one test whether or not they are in the faith? In addition, what does it mean to ‘keep examining ourselves after we have tested ourselves?

Your Thoughts...

My thoughts are that our minds are definitely the battlefield. I think the bible talks about it a lot. Just look what happened in the garden when Adam and Eve were deceived believing a lie. That's one of the areas of Satan's attacks is our minds and our emotions they're both connected.

We need to follow the Spirit, not our emotions. However, I find that a lot of people don't even understand how our emotions operate in the first place. Emotions are in the realm of the soul. Our soul is the in tangible area between our spirit, the place where God lives, and our physical body. It is made up of our mind, will and emotions, it tells us what we think, what we want and how we feel. So naturally that would be an obvious place for Satan to direct his attacks against us.

I'm currently studying on this topic as I think it's vital to understand our emotions. I think it helps knowing what people are like when we witness the gospel to them. So that we can use the right approach. We human beings are extremely complex. Our emotions are only one aspect of our being, but they are a very important one. Actually, it has been said that emotions are the Christian’s number one enemy because they can easily prevent us from following the will of God. I think emotions have been a mystery for most of us. Frequently, we simply don’t know why we feel the way we feel. We let emotions confuse us, and that often leads us to make decisions we later regret.

So I'll probably be hanging out in this thread quite a bit. Thanks for starting the GateKeeper.

 

[Julie]

We all have days when we feel more emotional than other days, and there may be many reasons why. Perhaps you didn’t sleep well the night before, or you ate something that lowered your blood sugar or that you were allergic to. The occasional emotional day is something we don’t have to be too concerned about. If Dave has a day like that, he never tries to figure it out. He simply says, “This too shall pass.”

Sometimes we feel emotional because something upset us the day before and we didn’t resolve it. We are often guilty of stuffing things down inside us rather than dealing with them. If you are a person who avoids confrontation, you can have a soul full of unresolved issues that need closure before emotional wholeness will come. I remember a night when I was unable to sleep, which is unusual for me. Finally, around five in the morning, I asked God what was wrong with me. Immediately I recalled a situation from the day before. I had been rude to someone and instead of apologizing to them and asking God to forgive me, I rushed through the situation and on to the next thing I needed to do. Obviously, my wrong conduct was irritating my spirit, even though my conscious mind had buried it. As soon as I asked God to forgive me and made a decision to apologize to the person, I was able to go to sleep.

If you feel unusually sad or as if you are carrying a heavy burden you don’t understand, ask God what is wrong before you start assuming things. It is amazing what we can learn by simply asking God for an answer and being willing to face any truth He might reveal about us or our behavior. Sometimes we feel emotional because of something someone has done to us or an unpleasant circumstance in our lives. But at other times we feel that way because of something we did wrong and ignored.

When I kept silence [before I confessed], my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long.
(Psalm 32:3)


Joyce Meyer

 

[Samson]

For me personally if the Holy Spirit doesn't help me work on renewing my mind, then I remain the same schmuck I've always been.

 

[Damien]

For me personally if the Holy Spirit doesn't help me work on renewing my mind, then I remain the same schmuck I've always been.

View attachment 730

I thank God that you're a new creation.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. 2 Corinthians 5:17