Be Renewed

Look around.

We receive so many messages that tell us who we should be every day.

How we should look.

How we should dress.

What we should eat.

What movies we should watch.

Even what we should think.

So much of if conflicts.

Media says we have to be a size two and without and ounce of fat while also promoting accepting who you are at any size with its body positivity messages.

So how do we know what to believe?

Run it through the lenses of God.

What does God say?

Be transformed.

And how?

By the renewal of your mind!

We filter all the input we receive during the day and ask "Is this of God or of the world?"

Although not of Christian origin its widely believed "what we think, we become"

Im reading a book that is written from a Christian perspective called "Winning the War in Your Mind" by Craig Groeschel.

Some quotes I highlighted were:

Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts.

If you don't control what you think. You'll never control what you do.

A lie believed as truth will affect your life as if it were true.

I swat at the swarm of thoughts flitting around my head and remember that I am not a victim of my own mind. I have power over my thoughts. I am not captive to them. With God’s help, I can make them captive to me.

... And that is what we are called by God to do the Bible says

2 Corinthians 10:4,5 CSB

[4] since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments [5] and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

The bible also tells us that we are made new in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

God cares about our hearts and our minds

David asks God to "create in me a clean heart"

We are to "guard our hearts"

So with all the earthly inputs we receive every day we are to run it through the filter of what the bible says.

Does it come from God? Does it glorify God?

Input equals output.

What we allow into our minds transforms it.

So the bible says to control what we allow into our minds.

Philippians 4:8 NLT

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

This goes for the music we listen to, the books we read, the TV we watch.

This will help us be renewed.

This will help us take every thought captive.

This will help us be alight to those around us.

Be encouraged you are not alone in this journey.

God's with you.