What were your first thoughts this morning? The to-do list of tasks emerged. You might have thought about the people you will see and the future conversations. Yesterday’s success and failures jogged in your self-conscious. Somewhere in there, we wonder about lunch. We have more thoughts than we can ever realize.
When we begin to examine our thoughts deeper, we uncover reoccurring messages. These messages range from the following:
Lies we believe about ourselves.
Anxiety concerning what we have to do or what people think.
Fear of failing.
The bombardment of criticisms we have heard from the past.
Hurts surface and re-surface.
What we think affects what actions we take and what we say. Grasping our thoughts means uncovering the positive and negative narratives. It takes time to sort through our thoughts to recognize the truth, reality, and feelings. Ultimately, what we think matters, but it might not paint a complete picture.
Paul in Romans 12:2 calls us to “renew our minds.” The previous eleven chapters detail what Christ has done for us in His death and resurrection: the Gospel. Through Him, we have experienced reconciliation, and we no longer have to walk in guilt and shame. Renewing our mind becomes the nuts and bolts of experiencing the Gospel in our everyday lives.
Dr. James B. Richards in How to Stop the Pain explains the correlation of the Gospel and a renewed mind from Romans 12:2:
The Gospel reveals faith-righteousness from beginning to end. We must start renewing our minds to it by accepting the fact that we are righteous in Jesus. We are completely accepted by God. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves more loved or accepted. Because we are righteous in Jesus, we are loved and accepted. Through these feelings of love, safety, and peace, God can walk us through a life of transformation without us feeling afraid or condemned (pg. 88)
Renewing our minds does not mean the removal of negative thoughts, rather it’s the process of seeing these thoughts through the Gospel, as a person loved and accepted in Jesus Christ. The pressure of transformation moves from our ability to the grace Christ offers us. The Gospel allows us to exchange our fears, anxieties, lies, hurts and the past for the reality of Christ in us.
What thoughts in your mind need to experience the Gospel in renewing your mind? In what ways, can seeing Christ give you a new mindset?
Photo by Jacob Sapp.