Start the New Year With New Thinking

 

by Barbara Latta @barbaralatta

Have you ever thought about what you think about? We may not realize it but our thinking does control our lives.

New Year's resolutions usually involve changing some type of behavior. Rather than a resolution, why not a renewal? Why not start the new year with new thinking?

A renewal of our minds can bring about changed behavior.

Where do thoughts come from?

Thoughts can come from past experiences, such as rejection, condemnation, and guilt.

Thoughts can come from other people’s opinions. When we value what another person says about us more than what God says, we can fall into comparison and depression.

Thoughts can come from God. Of course, these are the best ones. The more we remain in God’s Word, the more our thoughts will lean toward the way He thinks.

Thoughts can change the direction of our lives – for good or bad because thoughts create words and words can create actions.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

Thoughts don’t have to be vulgar or obscene to be damaging to our minds. They can just be negative, depressing, or condemning. They can be selfish, angry, and greedy.

Why do we need to change the way we think?

Because of Adam and Eve's fall into sin, we are all born with a default toward selfishness. When we are born again, our spirit gets cleansed but our soul doesn't become new.

The soul part of us is where we think and feel, our mind, will, and emotions. This part wasn’t renewed at salvation. This is why we must make the conscious effort to change the way we think. This takes effort because we have to deny our flesh what we want when what we want goes against God’s ways. We will not naturally gravitate toward godly ways without learning to think like God.

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) tells us we need to renew our minds if we want our lives to be transformed.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How Do We Renew Our Minds?

By not conforming to the world (Colossians 2:8).

We need to be conscious of what we allow into our minds. We are sometimes more aware of what we put into our bodies than our minds. We make sure we drink pure water, we count calories, read labels, look for fat-free or sugar-free ingredients in our food. But we can allow negative thinking to grow into our minds without being aware of those seeds that are scattered if we aren’t careful.

TV shows, movies, commercials, and sometimes words other people say to us can cause a negative thought to plant doubt into our minds. Social media, politics, and news most often have a godless mentality. These things can cause doubt in God’s Word. Like the serpent said to Eve, “Did God really say?”

What Does Renewing Our Minds Do for Us?

The last part of Romans 12:2 tells us, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The benefits of following God's instructions are:

• We learn what God’s will for our lives is.
• We can walk in victory over sin and temptation because we have become stronger in the knowledge of Christ. When we know who we are, we can recognize what is not of God and we won’t give in to it.
• We learn to control our emotions. The more we think depressing thoughts the more depressed we become.

When we live a holy life transformed by godly thinking we can be free of depression, anxiety, comparison, and fear.

For a more in depth study of the effects of thoughts, check out this book I am currently reading. Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts by Jennie Allen.

May your new year be filled with a beautiful, renewed mind.

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Image by Sonam Prajapati from Pixabay