Good morning,
How about a change of heart? You know how we are bent on changing the minds of the people in our lives. Well, what is really needed is a change of heart that can only come when the mind is renewed. Remember what Romans 12:2 says; "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (BLT) We can only be a new person which [means our heart follows], when we change the way we think. Ready for more transformation? Here is the same verse in the Amplified Bible. "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]." Learning and knowing God's perfect will comes only when we have a different thought process. That's why the Word tells us, “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you." (Matt. 7:6) There are certain things that will not change the heart until a person renews or changes the way they think. God's Word alone can do that. Even as believer's if we refuse to read and study the Word, there are deep truths in the Word that we will not get, if we don't receive the Word's ability to transform the way we think. It is something that we can have, it is available, but only if we are willing to be transformed. You know as well as I do that once we accept the Lord in our lives, we must continue to yield to His Word, for He never forces us to do anything. The scripture says; "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;" (Isa. 1:19) Willing means to be consenting and disposed; to desire and to yield to. It depends on the degree of our desire and our yielding to the Word that will effect a change or transformation of our mind and heart. The mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining the intellectual faculty, the understanding; reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness and of hating evil. With our mind renewed we can then think like our Father thinks about things, situations, and people. Otherwise we continue to be led captive by our old thought patterns, and every time old familiar patterns or familiar scenarios happen, we resort back to familiar thought patterns, which causes us to walk around in the wilderness of our mind. Because we direct the course of our lives by what we are full of in our thought life.
I am all for being a new man, with new God thoughts! I know that first and foremost in order for that to happen I must make God's Word hold the supreme and highest place in my life. His Word must have the final say so in my life. That is what it means to be Lord of my life! Without totally yielding our thought life then our thoughts have more of a tendency to be twisted, a little off, no matter how nice you are. Listen the Word will so transform our thought process that we can really think like God; "For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart." (1 Corin. 2:16) We can hold His feelings and purposes of His heart. We can change our hearts if we yield to His Word. We will need to lean on His Word more as the days approach. It will keep us right in the perfect center of His will.
Love,
Pastor D.
Daughters of Z 