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The first step to renewing your mind is to take ownership of your own thought life. The truth is that we are powerless to change anything for which we refuse to accept responsibility. Becoming aware of what and how you think is an important first step to developing a new mind that reflects the plans and purposes of God. Feelings come from thinking. One of the best ways to evaluate the condition of your mind is to keep a journal of the negative and fearful things that enter your mind during the day. Just write words or phrases that reflect any thoughts or feelings that naturally come to your mind. Writing these things down gets them out of your mind and onto paper where you can evaluate them. One or two days should be enough. You will probably be amazed at how many times your mind drifts in the direction of fear, anger, lust, pride, jealousy, and self–condemnation. This is the natural state of the human mind that has not been renewed in Christ. Don’t allow this exercise to discourage you. The modern computer is a marvel of human progress. The computer was conceived, designed, and produced as a duplication of the human mind, however, the computer has three basic elements: a screen, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and an operator (Programmer). For the purpose of this illustration, consider these three components as metaphors for your own spirit, soul, and body. The screen is your natural or physical life. The operator is the spirit. The CPU represents the human soul or mind. Before we knew Christ, we were using an old operating system. Because we were lost, we programmed all kinds of wrong things into the CPU—bad language, bad behavior, bad “short–cuts,” and had some really bad “web–surfing” habits as well. This filled our CPU with ungodly material. Then, one day, we became born again. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” Isaiah 55:8–11 (NKJV). It has the power to heal our toxic thinking and deliver our minds from destructive patterns of believing and feeling. On that day the operator or programmer changed.
A brand new righteous and spiritually alive operator was placed behind the same old computer and told to produce new images and results on the screen. However, because the CPU had already been programmed and operated by the person that used to sit there, it still produces those bad images. When you try to “surf the web” of your mind, the old habits, bookmarks, and historical data of the former user keep popping up. The old programs are still running behind the scenes even though new applications or thoughts are installed. Viruses and spyware from the world continuously try to enter and corrupt our new applications. Sometimes, the whole system crashes, and we fall back into our old patterns of thinking, speaking, and behaving. God has given us a special “recovery system” that will always restart and restore our minds—prayer, confession of sin, and faith in God’s Word. The only way to consistently change what is displayed on the screen of our lives is to reprogram our minds. Old files have to be meticulously found, deleted, and replaced with new data. For a while, as you look at the results on the screen, you may be tempted to think that nothing has changed. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” Colossians 3:1–2 (NKJV). But if you will stick with the process, delete the old, and replace it with the new and good information, eventually the screen will display what the programmer desires. You will begin to see the reflection of Jesus in you. This is really a large part of living the transformed life. We must devote ourselves to the task of deleting the old programmer’s files, applications, and history, while simultaneously replacing them with new files and applications that reflect our new life in Christ. Just because your screen keeps displaying old programs, doesn’t mean you have not changed. It just means you have to renew your CPU: your mind. If your thoughts are fixed on God, His Word, and you trust Him with your problems, you will have real inner peace. the most important tool we have to renew our minds is the Word of God. The Bible is filled with God’s thoughts and ways.
God’s Word does not just tell us what we shouldn’t think about. Renewing your mind is not emptying your mind and using your willpower to keep wrong thoughts out. That is a nearly impossible task. The biblical concept of renewing your mind involves a spiritual principle that we will call the law of exchange. The law of exchange teaches that life operates on a constant stream of “trades” or exchanges. You must trade something you have in order to get something else. A student trades his time, attention, finances, and efforts to a college in exchange for knowledge that will help the student achieve his or her goals in life and a diploma that corroborates that he has completed the outlined degree. Those decisions are producing the life that you are currently living. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” Romans 8:5 (NKJV). A single man trades his bachelorhood in exchange for a committed relationship with his wife in order to experience the joys of marriage and family. We all make decisions every day to trade our thinking, our time, our energies, and our attention to places, people, and things. “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” Colossians 3:8–10 (NKJV). Mindsets are hard to change. This is a good thing if our mindsets are positive, helpful, and based on the Word of God. A godly mindset affords great peace and strength. In order to change wrong mindsets, we need to exchange our old thoughts for new ones. We must feed our hearts and minds on the truth of God’s Word and keep those right images in our minds until they replace our old mindsets. Paul goes on to instruct the believer what kinds of “negative” or worldly thoughts and behaviors we need to “put off,” and what new thoughts and actions we need to “put on.” “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” Colossians 3:12–16 (NKJV).
