Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
We all have beliefs that subtly erode our values, boundaries, and godly goals. Sometimes these beliefs are about ourselves. Sometimes they are about God and his care about us. Whatever it is that you need to renew your mind about, it is totally worth the time and effort it will take to do it. If we don’t, we might find that something we value, rely upon, that is foundational in our life, slips off and out of our lives. We don’t want to experience the depth of this sort of loss. We want to guard against it! Wisdom would require that we be proactive. Romans 12:2 says we don’t want to do as the world does and just let whatever happens happen. We want to allow God to transform us and he will do this by renewing our minds.
Relative to our Thin Within journeys, the sorts of thoughts we may have might be:
- I won’t ever get this weight off…and even if I do, I won’t keep it off.
- I am such a failure. I never can string together two good days of 0 to 5 eating.
- I simply MUST have ice cream each day! If not ice cream, then cookies or brownies or…something to “treat” myself!
- I MUST be a size 6. If I can’t get down to a 6, then I am a failure.
- God doesn’t care about my weight/size. If he did, he would remove this struggle from my life.
- I keep letting God down. He is so disappointed with me.
NONE of these are truths! NONE of these reflect the way GOD thinks!
Here are 10 ways you can renew your mind so that He can transform you from the inside out!
1. Using Barb’s I Deserve a Donut App
2. Using Barb’s Weight Loss Bible Study
4. Go through a favorite book of the bible–for me it is Ephesians–and pull out all the truths that are there that can refute the lies you tend to tell yourself. Make index cards, type up a document, make a graphic image, write out post-it notes…so that the verses and the thoughts that go with the notes are EVERYWHERE that you may struggle. If you struggle in the kitchen, post them there. If the dining table, post them there. If with the scale, tape them on the scale. If the mirror, tape them on the mirror. If in the car, tape them on the mirror. You get the idea!
5. Create a God List. That is explained here and in this video:
6. Use the God List to have a praise-fest or Praise FEAST! That is explained here.
7. Memorize Scripture. You can use this iPod, iPad, or iPhone app to do that–or just the good old fashioned way of index cards and practicing going through them!
8. Start and update a gratitude blog. Mine is here if you want to have a look (it needs updating).
9. Create a “Renewing My Mind” play list on your mp3 player or iPod. I have suggestions at my other blog here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
10. Ask a friend to hold you accountable for your thinking. I recently asked Barb, who is my accountability partner, to hold me accountable for something I clearly need to renew my mind about. It doesn’t have to do with eating so I won’t bog you down with the whole story here, but I will be posting about it at my other blog sooner or later.
The point is, we don’t want to let whatever happens happen to our thinking. When our thoughts and feelings are given free rein, they take us into crazy places! Places where lies seem like truth!
Instead, we want to allow GOD’s thoughts to be our own thoughts. In His Word, he tells us what he thinks. The more we bathe our minds with Scripture and truth from Scripture, the more we will think like he does. That is what we WANT! 😀
Which of these will you try…today? If you are already routinely renewing your mind is there a new approach you can take to doing so? Is there a new thought that God might perhaps want you to renew your mind about?
Ok, Heidi…. do you have a spy cam in my house?? I JUST finished doing day 2 in Barb’s Freedom From Emotional Eating workbook ( something I felt God led me to do to “help” with the renewing of my mind), and Lesson 2 is EXACTLY about what you just posted! Talk about confirmation! One thing that I am learning is that it is so important to understand and to accept that this “renewal of the mind” thing isn’t a one shot deal. We have to renew our minds over and over and over again until it becomes second nature- and using the tools you suggested in this post, will certainly help! Thanks! Linda
I am catching up from being out of town and away from my computer. I LOVE the idea of a mind renewal music playlist. I’m planning on looking at all of those songs and adding some of my own. I would also recommend “Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns. This song has been so helpful for me re: the voices of the world vs. His voice.