Day 7: Be Renewed in Your Mind

In the last couple of studies, I’ve explained the first two steps of this vital importance theme, for each one of us of “How to Find God’s Plan for Your Life.” The first step: to let God create us anew in Christ. The second step: to present our body to God as a living sacrifice. When we take these two steps, God begins to renew our mind, to change the whole way that we think. Then to our renewed mind He unfolds His will for us in three successive phases: first, as good; second, as acceptable; and third, as perfect. In other words, the further we go in the revelation of the will of God, the better it gets.

I’m now going to explain to you more fully the nature of the renewed mind. We’ve already looked at what Paul had to say in Romans 12:1 and 2, and in verse 2 he spoke about being renewed in our mind. Now I’m going to read the next verse, Romans 12:3, for this explains what happens when our mind becomes renewed:

“For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”

I want to show you four marks of the renewed mind and, as I go through these marks you’d find it helpful to check on your own mind. Try to see how far your mind has been renewed and if there are areas perhaps where it still needs to be renewed.

First of all, the renewed mind is not self‑centered but God‑centered. It’s not motivated any longer by those three verbs, “I want, I think, I feel.” Instead it’s motivated by God’s values, God’s purposes, God’s objectives. These now become more important to us than our own. Let me give you just a few examples of what I mean. In 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul says:

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Notice that last phrase, “do all to the glory of God.” That’s the motivation of the renewed mind. Its desire and purpose is to do only that which glorifies God. It does not ask, “Will this help me? What will I get out of this?” It asks, “Will God get glory out of this?” And then, again, in Matthew 6:10, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray this way:

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

When we pray that prayer, we are actually renouncing our own will. We’re saying, in effect, “If my will crosses with God’s will, then let God’s will be done, not mine.” That’s a mark of the renewed mind. And then the renewed mind associates itself by a decision with the ultimate purpose of God for this earth. What is that? “Thy kingdom come.” The renewed mind is always directed toward the establishing of God’s kingdom on earth. Its ultimate purpose is God’s will and God’s kingdom.