RENEW: RENOVATE YOUR MIND

Thursday 28 November

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2 (KJV)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5 (KJV)

Have you ever seen someone who is always trying to keep up with the latest trends in the fashion world ? They are always trying to find out what is this season’s style and colour and do their best to stay ahead of the game in order to look the part and be popular. When it comes to spiritual matters however, we should actually have the exact opposite attitude.

The Apostle Paul tells us not to be conformed to the pattern of this world. The word ‘conformed’ in the Greek means to ‘fashion yourself according to another’s pattern’ in your mind and character. Next we are told to be ‘transformed’ which is to change into another form, to transfigure.

It is likened to the same way that Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John on the mount, except for us it is an inward transformation through the Spirit. His appearance changed into divine brightness. Transformed here also means a change of state or form much like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.

How are we transformed? By the renewing of our mind. Anaikinosis the Greek word for ‘renewing’ has the inference of renovating. When you see these D.I.Y. renovation shows, there are often alterations where they remove the old, outdated items and bring in what is fresh and new to the space. Sometimes they even add or remove an entire room to achieve their vision of what they want the house to look like.

They are usually designing something new from plans that they have drawn up. In our case it is the blueprint of Christ in the Word of God that we are building towards. The reason we need to renovate our minds, is because it contains the old design in it from the original structure that was our old life. Our bodies also carry the memory of how we conducted ourselves which is why we are told to ‘present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God’…

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us exactly how to affect the desired changes.

‘And we with open face beholding the glory of God as in a mirror are changed (metamorphosed) into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord’.

When we look into the Word of God we see our true identity and who we have become in Christ. As we contemplate the vision of our new selves in Christ, our soul begins to be transfigured into the glory of God that is in us. We see the glory of God because we are the glory of God.

Ephesians 1:17 confirms this when Apostle calls God the Father of glory and we are that glory! It is up to us to renew/renovate our mind using the Word and let the Spirit of God transform every part of our life as we conform not to the pattern of this world but into the image of Christ.

APPLICATION

Meditate on the scriptures concerning Christ and the revelation of the scriptures in the epistles to see who you really are and keep on looking because as you continue to look, you are being changed.