Over the past few years we’ve all experienced waves of change and upheaval in our society, with profound effects on our lives. You may find yourself struggling with fears and worries, negative thoughts and attitudes, in a way like never before. Perhaps some strongholds of wrong thinking that need to be broken have taken hold in your mind. You can’t keep thinking in negative ways and experience the new things God wants to do in your life. But what do you do?
The apostle Paul says the answer is to renew our minds. He says, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). We can’t be conformed to this world’s culture with its wrong types of thinking. Jesus put it this way: “No one pours new wine into old wineskins” (Mark 2:22). When you renew your mind, you transform your life.
If you’ve given your life to Jesus, you’re a brand-new creation, and your spirit has been made new. The problem is that we have old habits, addictions, and strongholds in our thinking that are contrary to what God wants us to think. Our mind needs to catch up with what’s going on in our spirit, which can only happen when we are no longer conforming to our old thinking. When you read the Word of God and put yourself under its teaching, you dislodge strongholds in your mind. You break the grip that wrong thoughts have over you.
Fortunately, we have the Word of God at our fingertips—printed Bibles, Bible websites, Bible apps, Christian music and podcasts, and Christian radio and TV. We choose what we read, listen to, and watch, and when you put yourself under the Word of God, the strongholds that are trying to hold you back will be broken. Paul says, “To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask, think, or imagine...” I love that. God can do anything, but listen to the second part: “...according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20). God is saying that when you align your mind with the power that’s in you, your mind will be transformed.
You’re in a battle, and it’s time to stand up and declare, “I’m not going to be held down by old ways and negative patterns of thinking. I’m going to live in the Word every day.” Whether you’re fighting an addiction or an illness or wrong thought patterns, listen to the Word of God constantly and let it bathe and transform your mind as it renews you. It will detox all those old ways and bring you into the new ways of God.