How Do We Renew Our Mind?

Today I read a wonderful post by my cyber-friend Candace, an incredibly insightful and godly woman whose blog is truly inspired by her ability to see God’s hand in her life and circumstances. Her post today made me think about transformation. Therefore, it inevitably brought to me Romans 12:2a

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

While reviewing this passage, my mind became a top, spinning round and round in different directions. It finally landed, however, on a thought about how I am not a very flexible type of person. Literally, I have a hard time even bending my knees to pick up a pencil from the floor, let alone go with the flow. I have plans! Change doesn’t come easy. Making adjustments is hard. I resist recalibration. Therefore, thoughts of transformation are a bit unsettling precisely because transformation has to do with change. What kind of change, though? Well, the hardest change of all…the changing of our mind...

Then I read Romans 12:2 again and I saw that an important element in the process of renewing our minds is “not to conform.” Huh? I am not to conform to the things of this world! I have to be a rebel and NOT go with the world’s flow. I need to go against it. This gave me a bit of hope since it sounded as if my tendency to resist going with the flow may come in handy after all…

But I also discovered that the transformation that comes with the renewing of our minds perhaps means more than a simple switch. It kind of looks like I have to not just go against the current, but jump out of it entirely and go into another river?! Transformation is a complete metamorphosis that implies the changing of our very core and composition. This sort of transformation can only be initiated by the Hand of our Great God reaching into the world’s river and pulling us out of it to then drop us into His. 

Once the Holy Spirit shows us this truth, the truth that we need a Savior, and we accept it and receive Him, the Lord pulls us out of the tainted river, and delivers us into His Living Waters so we can finally be transformed and begin the renewing of our minds. 

This brought me back to the process of sanctification and how renewing our minds is part of it. It is not a completed action, like salvation was by the sweeping deeds of Jesus. Renewing our mind is on- going …hence the use of the word “renewing” in the expression: “by the renewing of your mind” as supposed to: “by your renewed mind.” Like I heard a teacher explain: 

“not because you are a Christian it means that everything just clicks and all of a sudden you are a brand new creation…it means that we are free to become that new creation.” 

God rescues us from the filthy waters of this world in which we were immersed so that we can be transformed as we intentionally and continually keep on surrounding ourselves with all things good and godly: reading the Bible, listening to Christian music, meeting together with the body of believers, serving our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the list goes on, and on, and on for as long as we continue to be on this side of Heaven. 

That’s how we transform ourselves, by allowing Him to transform us as we dive in head first into His glorious river. Once in there, we keep on swimming forward with His flow, one breast stroke at a time.