Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 HCSB
When you work in law enforcement, you often find yourself shaking your head wondering what someone was thinking. There have also been times I look back and wonder what I was thinking.
A dear friend and I were talking yesterday about how messed up our thinking was in years past. I had to concur that I was way more conformed to this world and this age back in the day. I had been saved in my teen years and it kept me on the straight and narrow. It helped me to avoid the things the Bible tells us to avoid. This served me well while living at home in the shelter of my parent’s love, but then I went out into the real world.
I began to think like the rest of the world. I convinced myself it was okay to do what I wanted, even if the Bible clearly told me not to. I convinced myself that my half-hearted effort at Christianity would be enough. I believed I could skate by and get to heaven. Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking.
As I have begun to study the Bible, I have come to realize that God wants all of us. I have also come to realize it begins with our thinking or our thought process. We have to think much differently than non-Christians think. When we submit to Christ, we must surrender our thoughts or take them captive to be obedient to Him.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Whatever is in our heart controls what we think and what rolls out of our mouths. We know we will all think things we shouldn’t think at times, but we just learned we can take these thoughts captive before they become words and actions.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22 that anyone who is angry at their brother will be subject to judgment just as the murderer will be and they will also be subject to hellfire. He goes on in v. 27 to say that while the Ten Commandments prohibit adultery, looking with someone in a lustful way is committing adultery in our heart. Our sin begins in our heart and with our thoughts.
As unsaved or backslidden Christians, we tend to think like unsaved Christians. When Christ calls us to salvation, however, if we answer that call, we surrender to Him. This means we also surrender our thinking. Our old unsaved way of thinking is what our pastor often refers to as “stinking thinking”.
It’s easy to point a finger at someone else and think, “What were you thinking?” But we fail to check our own thought process.
If you are living like the rest of the world hoping to get into heaven for eternity, you may want to rethink that before it’s too late. Change your thinking by changing your heart. We must protect our heart against the evil and corruption that is all around us. We are told in Proverbs 4:23 to keep our heart with all vigilance because the springs of life flow from it.
The best way to do this is to focus on God and His righteousness. In Colossians 4:3, we are told to set our minds on the things above and not the things of this earth.
In Psalm 51:10 David prayed for God to create in him a clean heart and renew in him a right spirit. You can do the same. Surrender heart, body, soul and mind to God today.
Have a great day!