If you fear taking risks and making sacrifices, if you waste energy on things you can’t control, if you dwell in the past, if you struggle with change, if you spend time feeling sorry for yourself, if you keep on making the same mistakes again and again, if you give up when you fail, if you do things expecting immediate results, or if you fear spending time alone with God, these are just some indications that you need to better yourself mentally.

What you think will determine how you act, and how you act will determine the end results. Just like faulty programming on a computer will lead you to faulty results, erroneous programming of the mind will lead to undesirable results. Better is not just the result of changing your behavior, better is the result of renewing the way you think.

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

From the moment we’re born and even before that, our minds are being programmed. Programmed to follow ethical, moral, financial, relational, spiritual and all sorts of patterns. Some are good and others not so good. Better is the result of identifying those patterns and renewing the ones that do not conform to God’s laws. Just like in the physical world we see God’s laws at work, like the law of gravity or the law of cause and effect, in our everyday life there are also God-created laws at work. There are God-created laws for every area of our lives such as laws on how to live better financially, relationally, and spiritually. Renewing of the mind is the result of removing old ways of thinking and installing new ones

I’ll leave you with some ideas for renewing your mind. First and most importantly, TRUST God. Then, don’t waste your emotional energy on things you cannot control, don’t dwell in the past, don’t dwell on your mistakes, admit your failures and learn from them, embrace change and more importantly, TRUST God’s pattern for your life.