Renewing our mind

P 2963 Quick sand.

/ DVH

One of the quick sand traps we can fall into as we learn to walk with the Lord, is that we can get stuck regarding sin. We try to explain things away. When we focus on what we think happened and why — that’s when a ‘sin’ focus takes over and we stop thinking like we are children of the King. My advice is in all situations, focus on the Lord. Dismissing our sin is like stepping into quick sand.

What we intently look at, has a tendency to grow larger, and we need the Lord to be larger than the dumb stuff  other people do. Focussing on the cross and everything He chose to do for us, produces clear focus and gratitude. I’ve found that ‘self’ will lie to you. It is not interested in dying … because it is afraid it will cease to exist if it dies. But death to the ‘old’ self is always the desired outcome. We can only LIVE for Jesus to the extent that we are prepared to DIE to self.

Otherwise we will start explaining why we did this or that, trying to justify ourselves. Let’s just level the playing field shall we? “ALL have sinned!” This means we can’t possibly justify ourselves – all means all!  Don’t fight humility or give self any credence, confession is the answer to sin. Renewing – or changing your mind – means our focus will change as we focus on His thoughts not ours. Otherwise we are trapped, but the minute we confess our faults – that trap flies open. Sin is a deceiver. It wants us to identify with it instead of leaning on and relying upon what Jesus did for us. The reality is, sin can no longer hold us, it can only take hold when we believe its lies.

Trying to justify ourselves means that we have been tricked into giving away the ground that Jesus died to give us. The efficiency of our enemy’s trap depends upon the personality of the individual person. For many people, He can grab them because of an underlying sense of guilt or shame. This means that we haven’t yet totally grasped what we have been given. Jesus Christ gave us His justification, His stature before God. We have it credited to our account. God gave us something that we could never do for ourselves – for free. But it cost Him everything – that’s the kind of wonderful God we serve! 

This what what this incredible exchange was all about – Jesus took our sin and gave us His holiness, His righteousness. To walk in those things we need to treat other people the same way He treated us. We were His enemies! We were against everything He stood for. We need to do this generously. Unselfishly. Not just the people we like, but even our known enemies. Now we are free to choose to follow Him down the road of sacrificial love, compassion, kindness etc.

The Christian life is about choices. It is often about choices that need to be made under pressure. Jesus chose to be a servant. So we choose to follow Him and live the same way He did, with thanksgiving and obedience. Our day-to-day choices provide us with a mirror – they show us how much faith we are living in. When we choose to give into our flesh, ourselves, our old nature, we are empowering our old life. That old life no longer has any power over us – we can only enliven it by giving it our allegiance. It is a mirage, a memory, a shadow of what was. We will find the attitude or actions that seem to imprison us, actually cannot hold onto us when we begin to use our faith to walk away from them.

The more we have indulged our flesh the harder the enemy will fight for us to return to that life. he never stops tempting us, because Jesus Himself said: “… in this world you will have trials…” When we are tried, by self-interest or difficult circumstances, our true self comes to the surface where it can be identified and dealt with. Instead of excusing that behaviour as ‘only human’ or ‘normal under the circumstances’ — we need to own how we’ve reacted so we can walk away from it, back into the freedom Christ has given us.

Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, we begin to take our renewed mind’s faith-steps away from the things that drag us down and step into our new life, our new identity, in Christ. We are now who He says we are. This means instead of giving you a piece of my mind, I give away His PEACE to you instead. Instead of punishing you because you don’t suit me, I choose to love you. Loving you is not giving you permission to continue to hurt me, instead it gives YOU a chance to know what unconditional love looks like!

The reason I can forgive you or you can forgive me is because of what Jesus did for both of us. We are standing on the same ground. Our issues are not people, our issues are attitudes and subsequent actions.“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21-22a. See? Attitudes matter!! Anger is clearly out of God’s order. It’s not just a bad day, or a stinky attitude, or a suitable response to someone else’s sin, to warn them off.

We know something that the other person may not know – He died for their sin too. Sin, or holding onto resentment or bitterness, or shame or guilt, is like stepping into quick sand. We will drown and smother our burgeoning faith. Our best combat attitude is to continue to renew our mind, and act on what we read. Then we begin to think about this life like Jesus did. We ask for His help – and use our faith to be obedient. Bye 👋

P 2114 Learn to govern your own thoughts.

/ DVH

“So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!” Psalms 42:11 TPT

So, talking to yourself out loud, in public places may not be a good thing – nice large men in white coats might come and get you. 🚑 Fortunately, nowadays, many people have phones in their ears so it may not be quite so obvious when we talk out loud into thin air on a busy street! 😆 However, this Psalmist is not talking about saying stuff out loud – he is talking about internally speaking to his soul. Which is his mind, will and emotions. I talk to my soul a lot – it needs it. However, I don’t talk to my soul out loud in public, be-cau-se those nice men in white coats kinda put me off that!

Most of the time I have to tell my mind to ‘shut up please,’ because it has a habit of reminding me of my own failures, fears and inadequacies, as well as lists of any dumb hurtful things other people have done to me! The bible, however, teaches me to rest, relax and sit down with happier thoughts about the God of all the Universe Who loves me dearly. So, I take this verse: “Whatsoever is good, whatsoever is right, whatsoever is profitable let your mind dwell on these things…” LITERALLY.

BTW, dwell on means live like that, think like this. I have to be honest with you, and say that a lot of the time, I find this scripture very challenging!  My mind wanders off along some well-worn tracks when it comes to some if the people I know, and … not all of those tracks are things that are good, right and excellent. 😶 However, what I have learnt by applying this scripture is this – every time we embrace what the bible says and intentionally apply it into our lives by doing it – what He says becomes stronger than the turmoil.

The Lord calls that in His book … “renewing our mind.” It works like this: I look at what I think, and then I intentionally go and look up what He thinks. It is wise to not get stuck on what I think – that sends me down the path of fear, anger, worry, disappointment and discouragement. I start reminding myself about what the Lord says instead. I see this process like a coin – I can stick with the side of that coin I know very well, or I can become acquainted with the other side and try to find the good in whatever uncomfortable, nasty situation I’ve ended up in! And then I go on from there and pray about something I can do, then I CHOOSE to obey what HE says, and ignore that old record playing in my head. This is a hard thing, but if you can conquer the battle of your thoughts – you can kill a giant! I wonder if that’s why David ran at Goliath shouting??!!

I have learnt, from experience, that our God is extremely generous. Whenever I make even a teen tiny effort to be obedient, I’ve found that He is already running toward me to help me. The thing is, that other guy will try to fool us with remarks that go like this: a/ you are thinking bad thoughts about someone who hurt you because they have been so mean and you are a truly awful person. How could God love me? And:  b/ it is my own fault that I got into this mess in the first place! 😱 Reasons pop up in my mind like daisies on a lawn. 

The Lord has provided us with a better way in His book. This Psalm teaches us that we can talk to our soul and learn to stop embracing the ugly thoughts. Here’s a helpful tip I’ve needed many MANY times! Not every thought in your dear little head is YOURS. The other guy chucks in his evil contribution and because he is so incredibly sneaky so we think it is us. So then we beat ourselves up for being a bad Christian or we agree with him that our life is terrible and it is never going to get better. Agreeing with the other guy is a really bad plan. It is like watching water go down the drain – you can’t get it back. Time is valuable, it is all we have. However, we always need to remember, Jesus can redeem anything.

If we choose to obey what the Lord says in the book and act on it – that produces His strength in our weakness. Meanwhile, the next time we choose to obey, it is easier. It’s like a muscle being strengthened. the more we use it the stronger it gets. So here’s another helpful hint: I’ve found that I cannot build a case against someone else and, at the same time, build one for what the Lord wants. I have to choose to govern my own thoughts, and select which kind of thinking I want to facilitate. That can involve a whole lot of deep breathing! Otherwise I know I will get anxious and start worrying about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter.

And here is a fantastic scripture to end with: “I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!”” Psalms 32:8-9. There’s good advice for all of us!

I encourage everyone reading this blog today to start speaking to your soul about any immediate chaos or trouble that has being dogging your heels – because our thoughts and choices are powerful. They change us and they will, over time, change the environment around us. Bye. 👋🏻