I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).
In the new birth our spirits are transformed from darkness to light. The nature of sin is removed and replaced by the nature and life of God. A new motivation for living rises up from within. The things we once delighted in are replaced by an attraction to right living. And that’s where the challenge begins.
Before Christ we allowed our minds, emotions, wills and bodies to absorb habits that now bring regret if we participate in them. Paul said it to the believers in Rome this way: I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members and faculties as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members and faculties once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) which leads to sanctification (Romans 6:19-Amplified).
Stubbornness, anger, malice (the desire for bad things to happen to people who do you wrong), self-centeredness, habits of fleshly lusts (sexual and otherwise), overeating to cover pain, overwork to escape dealing with relational issues, perfectionism; all of these things come from a soul (mind, emotions and will) that must be subdued and brought to obedience to the Word! The mind is renewed and the body submitted to God as a living sacrifice as we daily yielded ourselves to the Lordship of the Word, making a conscious decision to act on the Word when everything in you wants to go the other way!
Make a decision today and everyday to 1) meditate the Word, to let it revolve over and over in your mind. 2) Make a decision to be a doer and not just a hearer only of the Word. 3) Make a decision to put the Word first place in your life. Not last place, but to act on the Word in each situation life brings. Do what God says should be done in that situation. 4) Make a decision daily to obey your conscience, the voice of your human spirit speaking to you. As you train your conscience to obey the Word, the voice of God in your inward man will become clearer and clearer.
Mind renewal is a lifelong process that will only culminate when we get to heaven and are like Him! Work towards that end everyday! He must increase; I must decrease!
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