"And do not
be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may prove what the
will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2
Our text today is telling us to not be
like the world but to allow God to
transform us into His likeness by the
renewing of our minds. Your mind is the
gateway to your life. The Bible tells us
to think about good things and resist
thinking about the bad.
Whatever we dwell upon will eventually
take root in our hearts. The Bible says,
-"Out of the
mouth the heart speaks." Whatever
takes root in the heart and begins to
grow will soon be manifested in what we
say and what we do. A thief is not a
thief because he steals; he steals
because he is a thief. He acts out what
he has become. And he became a thief by
first entertaining the thought, and then
allowing the thought to take root in his
heart. When we allow God to renew our
minds we are allowing Him to replace the
bad with the good. When the good
thoughts take root in our heart we begin
to speak and act according to the will
of God.
The Greek word translated "renewing"
here actually means renovation. It
implies a house being renovated, with
the old being removed and the new being
installed. The Bible says that when a
person becomes a Christian he becomes a
temple of God because the Spirit of God
lives in him. When God moves in and
begins to live in our hearts and minds,
He does His own renovation according to
His will and purpose.
It is through the renewing of our minds
that we learn the acceptable will of
God. And not only that - it has been
said that every person moves in the
direction of his most dominate thought,
so we tend to act out the things we
think about. This is why we are told to
fix our eyes on Jesus - place our hope
fully in Him. When teaching His
disciples, Jesus acknowledged that there
were plenty of things in life to worry
about, but instead of giving in to that
mind set He taught that we should seek
the Kingdom of God first and trust that
God will provide everything else for us.
