Thursday August 30, 2018

 

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior].

  – Proverbs 23:7 AMP

 

How you think directly determines how you act and react. The way you conduct yourself in every area of your life, is directly connected to the way you think. Your thoughts about finances influence the way you conduct yourself financially. If you study the people that lived through the Great Depression, you will see that they were extremely cautious with their money. They spent their money on the essentials and saved as much as they possibly could. This in contrast to those persons that lived through the 80’s and 90’s which was a period of prosperity. During this time, people borrowed money and spent more on non-essentials. Their thoughts about money affected the way in which they conducted themselves financially. The same is true for us, they way we think about marriage, dating, sex, family, work, church… determines how we conduct ourselves in all areas of our lives.

 

In yesterday’s post, we learned that God is more concerned with working in us than He is concerned with the circumstances outside and around us. We are worried about where we live, how we look, what we drive, and how much money we make, and God is concerned about who we are becoming. Our priority is to have and God’s priority is who we are becoming. We pray that God would give us a bigger house, a new car, a better job, for Him to change our spouse, children, boss, and neighbor. God on the other hand focuses on what is happening inside of us. We focus on the exterior and God focuses on renewing us form the inside out.

 

 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2 

 

Because we are so conformed to the patterns of this world, we continuously sacrifice character for the sake of accomplishment. We are living in a world that values what a person has and what they have accomplished more than it does who the person is. However, from God’s perspective (the only one who truly matters), who we are is far more important than what we have. God wants to transform us into the image of His son Jesus. He does not want us to look like Jesus or to imitate Him; He wants to transform us into the image of His son.

 

This speaks to the character of Jesus. It is not about being an imitator of Jesus; God actually wants to renew our minds so that we would think like Him. A renewal means to strip away the old and replace it with something new. God wants to renew our lives so that instead of focusing on having and achieving, we would focus on becoming the right person. God wants us to think differently about family, friends, time and money instead of thinking about these from a world-view perspective. If we see as God sees, then we will act differently. A transformed life is the result of a renewed mind, and God wants you to allow Him to transform your life through the renewing of your mind.

 

Dear God, please help me to renew my mind, transform my life, help me to become the right person, help me to be like Jesus, to think like Jesus, to be renewed into the image of your Son. Amen!