| A Renewed Mind or Tolerably Healed? |
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Why am I already waiting for Sunday to get here? We just had the Wednesday night thing last night. Soft Drinks and popcorn and.....chocolate. Maybe it's the chocolate that makes me have that craving feeling.
Wait, I know what it is. It's the juice and donuts before Sunday School. NO, that's not it either. It must be something else...maybe I'm getting something else out of church. Pastor Jeff talked an awful lot about the 'renewing of the mind' last Sunday. That is something to think about. He insisted that we all must endeavor for this renewing of the mind.
How is the mind renewed? Maybe it has something to do with breaking old thought patterns that weigh us down and keep us from experiencing the fullness of the Grace that our God has extended to us through His Son, Jesus? Is there something holding us back, holding us down, restraining us? Have you ever felt half-saved? I have felt both fully saved and half-saved. I have felt fully saved when I had my sinful nature pushed into a far corner, but when I began to let sin live in me again, I began to feel like something was missing.
The Truth is that when you are saved, you are saved. God has claimed you and He will not loosen his grip, at least not without a fight. You have to fight real hard to get away from Him. Maybe somebody can do it, but I don't put up much of a fight when it comes to defending my sin nature.
I want 'the real thing'. I want all that God has to offer. Anything that I cling to that puts distance between me and God, anything that hinders me from yielding to God, that thing is a discomfort to me. God will not leave it alone, He will not leave me alone, there will be no real peace until it is dealt with.
That is where renewing of the mind comes in. We have to let the Holy Spirit live in us and let it shine its bright light into every dark corner. Nothing can be left hidden, nothing can be locked away. To have a renewed mind, it is necessary to deal with the hurts and disappointments that we have experienced in our pasts. We have to let God come in and put these things to rest.
We can't live with a 'victim mentality', we have to identify our sin of unforgiveness and immediately we have to forgive the thing.
It appears that there are some people in the world, a few saints among us who go through life without having the experience of little things triggering them to rush into anger and hurt. They don't use harsh words and they don't react in bad ways. Is it possible that they don't even think an evil thought?
Is it possible through salvation, is it possible by Grace that we can become like little children again? But not just children. Is it possible we can live like children who have never experienced pain, heartache, abandonment, betrayal and all those other things that we all, in fact, have experienced?
Since we received our new birth, since we have been born of God and the Spirit, we have no reason and no right to cling to our sad pasts. God hasn't allowed us to be hurt, betrayed, abandoned, broken-hearted. He has cleaned everything up. He has washed our past and our present and our future. Our transgressions have been forgiven. We are blameless and unblemished. We must then extend that forgiveness to anyone and everyone that has hurt or disappointed us. If we can do this, we are His children.
I want to live that way. One day you may see me doing it. Maybe one day it will come so naturally that I won't even be aware that I am living it. I'll be like a child, fresh, forgiven, clean-faced, innocent, untouched by turmoil, stress and fear. Maybe it will be tomorrow? How long can YOU wait? |
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