Start With Your Thoughts

Paul taught the early church about the importance of their mindset. He spoke often about having a kingdom mindset in order to live the abundant life. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Paul is talking about a transformation of our way of thinking which is synonymous with the born again experience. We were born in sin, shaped in inequity and so we had the sin nature in us. The sin nature also comes with a way of thinking which is influenced by the world system.

When we become born again, the transformation of becoming a new creature in Christ starts in the mind. We accept Jesus Christ and we are saved and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. We then develop the mind of Christ so that the Holy Spirit can think through our thoughts and speak through our lips. We know that life and death is in the power of the tongue and our words first take shape in our minds. This is why some people believe that there are no slips of the tongue. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

Since we know how powerful our words are, we guard our minds and our hearts and watch our thoughts before they become words. The devil cannot curse us but he can use our words to keep us ensnared. What I would advise is that, you refuse to say what you do not wish to see manifest. We can go a bit further and guard our thoughts so that they don’t become words. We guard our thoughts by filtering out information that will not generate good thoughts. Binge watching the news, listening to gossip, watching violent or illicit films will fill our minds with thoughts that do not come from the presence of God.

We renew our minds by reading the bible, listening to sermons and having our conversations full of grace and seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6). This is the saltiness which is the redeeming quality of the church to preserve the earth. We have to pray over our minds and declare that we think only those things that emanate from the throne of God. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). As the language in this verse suggests, there is a battle that surrounds our thought life. We have to literally wage war against thoughts that do not line up with the word of God. We daily renew our minds so that our thinking will line up with God’s will for us.

A.P.-Y.