Renewal

Our morning newspaper featured a few “Easter” articles, mostly the secular version with chocolate and eggs and bunnies. Some focused on the message of renewal, but the writers demonstrated little, if any, idea of what God can do in that department.

This morning’s devotional reading in God is Enough tells of the power of God and describes how “we trust and He works.” The writer also quotes one of my favorite verses, Romans 12:2. It says, “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.”

I know a few people who would love to have their mind renewed. One person told me last week that she hates the way her mind works and would love to think differently. However, she felt powerless to change herself. She wanted advice, so I told her that God can do it. She was skeptical because in her view, God doesn’t exist so having Him do anything seemed impossible.

Christians know that God can do the impossible. Besides, if our minds could not be renewed, He would not have had Paul write about it in this letter to the church in Rome. Instead, this verse actually commands God’s people to be transformed, to have our minds renewed. In my mind, if He commands it, a renewed mind it is not even an option.

Of course being renewed means thinking in a new way. God wants me to think like He thinks, not like those in the world (who do not know Him). Other than crawling inside His head, how is this possible? 1 Corinthian 2:16 asks that question, “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?”

The rest of the verse answers that question: “But we have the mind of Christ.”

Of course this is the only way. I cannot get into God’s head, but He can get into mine. When He opened my eyes to my sin and need of His forgiveness, and when Jesus came to live in my heart, He brought His mind along with Him. Because He lives in me, I have the mind of Jesus, so thinking like God is possible. The bigger problem is being willing, and then actually doing it.

Why would I not want to? Well, that wonderful verse from Romans 12 tells me that a renewed mind means I will no longer be conformed to the world, and that challenges my willingness. I will not think like other people and, aside from misunderstanding me most of the time, they might not appreciate that. I could find myself lonely and even ostracized by those who once were my friends. Do I want that?

The verse also give the upside of this argument. With a renewed mind, I will be able to test the will of God and find out that it is good, acceptable, even perfect. Without His mind, that discovery is unlikely, even impossible.

So mind renewal sounds like a good thing, but after some trial and error, I realize that this does not involve the usual human ways of learning new stuff. God does not put me through strenuous hours of memorizing foreign ideas or trying to study how He thinks. Neither does He endorse the brainwashing techniques used by some of the so-called “Christian” cults. Instead, He simply asks two things: read and believe His Word and then, in faith, do what it says.

My part is to read, trust and obey. God’s part is the real work. He uses His Word to change me, not only the way I act but also the way I think. He introduces new ideas, sometimes ideas that seem strange, partly because they are new and mostly because my mind has been affected by sin and doesn’t want to accept His thoughts. Yet somehow He manages to change me.

For one thing, I recognize that if my rational brain or that part of me that thinks as the world thinks rules my thoughts, then I’ll miss the will of God. But if I let the mind of Christ rule, then I’ll hear what He says, believe it, then act accordingly. The stickler is that old habits are hard to break.

On Easter Saturday, I can’t help but think what the disciples were going through about two thousand years ago. Jesus had told them that He would die and rise again but their brains could not fathom how that could be possible. Then He did die and they scattered. What was that day after His death like for them? Would God come through? They were certain He would not so when Jesus appeared to them alive, they were astonished. Worldly thinking.

Yet, by this they realized that He would keep His promises, that He would always follow through, always. Godly thinking.

They became men who were willing to risk their lives for Jesus. They learned that He isn’t like others—He does what He says He will do. Just the same, that Saturday must have been for them like I feel in those days between taking impossible situations to Him in prayer and seeing that prayer answered.

A renewed mind tells me that my feelings don’t change what God is doing. My doubts don’t change the fact that God never fails to keep His promises. Renewal is about God doing amazing things—from the simple; I plant tulips, God makes them grow—to the more complex; I offer prayers, God answers them.

When I read, trust and obey, even with a mind that is never quite as renewed as I want it to be, the results always amaze me. Just as He rose from the dead, just as He answers prayer, just as He gives me a new way to think—He is amazing, always amazing.