The Mind- 2
March 14, 2025
Philippians 4:8-9
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there isany excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Ephesians 4:23-24
23 and that you be renewed in thespirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Yesterday, we talked about the mind and what it means to have the mind of Christ. Let us continue on in that vein today and consider how it is possible to change your thinking. Among non-christians, you often hear the complaint that Christians are against everything fun. They accuse Christianity of being a religion of “thou shalt not” rules. In truth, Christianity is a relationship with Jesus in which you strive to please Him by concentrating on the good things. In Philippians 4, we are given a whole list of things that we should think about; things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute and excellent. The promise is that when you dwell on such things, the God of peace will be with you. When you focus your mind on these good and positive things, there is no longer any room for the negative thoughts like worry and depression that used to plague many of us before we came to know Jesus. There is still a temptation to think about these things as long as the Devil is alive and working, but with a little effort and the help of the Holy Spirit, we can redirect our mind to dwell on positive thoughts.
In Ephesians, this process is described as “putting on the new self”. So the process of renewing your mind is one of putting off the old self and putting on the new self. Romans 5-8 describes this in great detail telling us how the old man, Adam, brought sin and death into the world, but that the new Adam, Christ, brought life and redemption into the world. By putting off the old man and putting on the new man, we exchange an old way of live for a new one. Isaiah 61 paints a word picture of this by showing us how to take off the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praiseL
Isaiah 61:3
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
As a practical matter, this verse actually shows us a method of renewing our mind. By actively praising the Lord and singing worship songs, we can literally throw off the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise. That is a great technique to use when the troubles of this world start to get us down and we are tempted to worry and complain. Take some time to listen to some worship music and sing some praise to the Lord, and the spirit of heaviness must flee.
So renew our mind and think on these things… Something to think about as we start a new day.
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