I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.--Romans 12:1-2
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
We have been looking at the three things Romans 12:1-2 says we are to offer to our God as our reasonable service. The first, our bodies, we discussed in our previous study. The second thing we are to dedicate to our Lord is our minds. It is important to remember here, however, that they all go together. Christ wants all of us...soul, body, mind and will. For the sake of time we are looking at them separately.
Now I can laugh at this because I think why would anyone, especially God, want my mind. Seriously though...God does! He wants our minds set apart to Him and for Him. The world bombards us with different philosophies and stuff that grabs our emotions and bypasses rational thought. It attempts to program our minds in a certain way to conform us into its way of thinking...which really is not about thinking at all...truth is not desired in the world and neither is thinking. The world for the most part does not care if something is right as long as it works and makes them feel good. The word conform here means take on the outer appearance of something. We do not want to look like the world. The Spirit of God lives inside us. We want to be transformed into His image. God wants to give us His wisdom and His mind. He wants to teach us and reason with us. He wants to renew our mind and fill it with His truth, His ways and His will. 2nd Corinthians 3:18 says:
"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Whether you like it or not, you are a product of your thinking. The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart so is he. How are you programming your mind to think? What are you putting into it? GIGO...garbage in...garbage out. Word of God in....Word of God out. Fill your mind with the world, and the world will be reflected in your life. Fill your mind with the word of God, and the Spirit of God, who came to live inside you when you became a believer, will use it to transform you from the inside out. You will shine for Him...Your inner man will be renewed daily into His truth and His way of thinking. As you abide in Him your mind will become Spirit-controlled and you will speak psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to those around you. Double-mindedness will decrease and spiritual stability will increase. Your foundation will be strong, and as it says in Ephesians, you will stand!
Fallen, unsaved man's mind, the Bible says, is depraved, blind, futile, foolish, and ignorant. I can give you the references if you need them. Here is what John MacArthur says about the mind of fallen man:
"So depraved it does not choose what is good, so blind it does not know what is good, so useless it does not perform what is good, so ignorant it doesn't even know it's doing all of this and you're left with the only alternative...everything is foolish. That's the mind of man, fallen man"
My mind was all these things and more before coming to the Lord...despite my college degree...despite my good job. My life was in shambles...John MacArthur's quote hits home. Upon acceptance of the Lord, however, the one thing that told me something supernatural had occurred was that I felt like my mind had expanded exponentially. I saw things and understood things with different eyes. Many, many of my beliefs changed at the moment Christ entered my heart and The Spirit of God moved into my thinking. My mind which was once depraved, blind, futile, ignorant and foolish was now different. No, I did not have a new brain, but I did have a new way of thinking. My mind now thought not on the fleshly level but on the Spiritual. Romans 8:5 says this: "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."
1 Corinthians 1:30 says:
"But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—"
What does Christ become for us....wisdom from God!
Now look at 1 Corinthians 2:10-16. These verses are amazing and would be a blessing to meditate on and memorize!
"But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ."
Wait...what does it say in that last sentence...we have whose mind? The mind of Christ!!
2nd Corinthians 10:3-5 " For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,"
We can bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ...why...because we have His mind. We can strain all the stuff of the world out and allow the Spirit of God to show us what is true.
This is the mind we dedicate to Him...We dedicate by giving it to Him and allowing Him to renew it by His Word. The world, as I stated before, throws so much stuff at us, girls, that our minds become cluttered and dirty. Our minds need regular renewal with the truth of God...His word. Spend time daily reading it, studying it, memorizing it and meditating on it. Allow God to transform your thinking...2nd Timothy 3:16-17 says:
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Hebrews 4:12 says:
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Dedicate your mind to Him by setting it upon the things above and not on the things of the earth. Dedicate your mind to Him by putting on the new man that is renewed in knowledge and let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." That's how you dedicate and transform your mind. The renewed mind is saturated and controlled by the Word of God.
Love
Mom
