If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you know about Romans 12:2. You’ve heard sermons about renewing your mind, and yet many Christians continue to live out of their old mindset.
It is so easy as a believer to default back to our old mind, but if we truly wish to stop living like a victim and live like a victor, if we truly desire to be more like Jesus, we must lose our old minds and start living our lives with a renewed mind.
Here is what the Bible says about renewing the mind.
Take a moment and jot these verses down. They are great for your war room, to help you remember to live every day with a renewed mind in Jesus Christ.
I understand that you can’t expect a sinner to behave in any other way than how sinners behave. When those who claim to have experienced new birth through faith in Jesus Christ are behaving in the same way, I have some serious questions.
I know how the argument goes:
“I am not perfect, just forgiven.”
“I am just a sinner, saved by grace.”
“You may be born again but you sin a little bit every day.”
How do these excuses for sinful behavior match with Scripture?
Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, that He may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see Him, neither does it know Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17 MEV).
The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus urging them “that you put off, the former way of life in the old nature, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new nature which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24 MEV).
The Apostle John taught “Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. Whoever sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not practice sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:7-9 MEV).
It is amazing how the Apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, believed and taught that being born again means you grow spiritually and develop new behavior patterns that are consistent with the new life of the Holy Spirit and the old sinful behavior is put away.
It is not a matter of legalism and a list of do’s and don’ts.
It is a matter of losing your old mind and new life patterns flowing out of a renewed mind and the Holy Spirit within you, motivated by a deep love for God.
“Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us … And do not let sexual immorality, or any impurity, or greed be named among you, as these are not proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse joking, which are not fitting. Instead, give thanks. For this you know, that no sexually immoral or impure person, or one who is greedy, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph. 5:1-5 MEV).
Believers are acting so much like the world because they haven’t lost their minds!
Dr. F. Dean Hackett has served in full-time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting 15 others, and currently serves as lead pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
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