Renewal of the Mind - New Series Part II

In an introduction, I shared how I believe He wanted me to return to writing on renewing of the mind.  It really is not for the sake of a technique or trying to be redundant in things we already know we are suppose to do in the Lord.

Simply put, I desire to write out sincerely what I believe the Lord is calling His body, His church to:  a greater desire to know Him and fully allow Him to grow us up in all things in Christ.  Ephesians  4:15:

"But speaking the TRUTH in love, may grow up in ALL things into Him, who is the head:  Christ."

In doing the above Scripture, it may require returning to truths we have known in the past, been taught, but for whatever reason, have not fully possessed them or owned them - making them absolutely part of our thinking as valued treasure.

I had a couple of "testing" times yesterday.  There's been something in my life that for whatever reason, I feel I lost ground on (not sin).  So I've been talking to the Lord about it for a long time.  I truly recognized that I still would strive over it, and I even recognized that when I was "trying" to have faith, my body would tense up.

So I go duh - that's not faith - that's anxiety - it's not resting in the Lord or abiding, or again, faith - it's ANXIETY.

All anxieties of our mind will cause our bodies to stress and tense.  I do not think that is rocket science stuff.  Jesus Himself while on earth talked about anxiety.   "Do not worry about your life..."  Hmmm, what part of this do we not understand?

Paul wrote:  "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made KNOWN to God  with THANKSGVING - and the peace of God, which surpasses ALL understanding WILL guard your hearts and MINDS through Christ Jesus."  Phil. 4:6,7.

Now in truth, worry is unbelief.  And unbelief is sin.  "...whatever is not from faith is sin."  Romans 14:23b.

But then there is the truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  And another truth that Jesus Christ IS the author and finisher of our FAITH.

So no matter WHAT the problem is, or if the struggle is either with trusting, resting, unbelief, flesh, this or that - JESUS CHRIST is ALWAYS the cure - the answer, the ONE who will give us HIS thoughts regarding any and all situations, trials, you name it.

For me - that is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NEWS!  Jesus Christ, our Friend, our Brother, our Lord, our Savior, our Strengthener, our Guard, our Guide, our Head, our ALL in ALL.

Last night when I went to bed, I felt a little discouraged.  You all I grew up surrounded by discouragement and despair.   This is what I knew as I grew up.  Discouragement and despair were exactly like DRUG DEALERS on the corner of the street, at the entrance of our house - that no matter what possibly came in my thought life for hope and good, faith, peace, etc., they were there to inject their poison just like their names.

So I truly know about in the past, trying to live out a daily life with their howling in the background, "Hey, you need some more of us!"  And many times I fell for them, just like a drug addict.  It seemed at times easier to live in discouragement and despair than to make that climb.

HOWEVER, there was something else taking place in me - Jesus Christ in my heart - BIG BROTHER Jesus - that though He started in me as the SEED of LIFE by His Holy Spirit, He did indeed start a good work.  The good work of faith, hope and love by His power, His strength, AND Truth of His Word ALL brought to us by God's Gospel of Grace.

We honestly do grow in the spirit.  He does teach us HOW to resist the evil one - to even recognize the awful enemies of our faith in Him.  We may go for a while like stupid, retarded children of God - but through Christ, we do indeed overcome the world.

And Jesus Christ gets BIGGER in our spirit man, in our thought life - then truly as we grow, we get better at detecting those enemies of our soul.  We are detectives.  And the kind of detectives God wants us to be is with our own souls - detecting when the enemy is starting to plant a lie - or detecting to get RID of ALL the lies and feast upon the Truth.

So last night, God did indeed give me aid.  A thought from His Word and from my life experience of His faithfulness came to mind, and I chose to grab on to it just like a feather floating down from the sky - and was able to dismiss that OLD man of the past.  Unbelief is the Old Man - Jesus Christ - Faith - the New Man!

This is daily - we will never be at a place where we cannot be in some way tempted, BUT we can be stronger in Jesus.  AND we are called to encourage one another in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, our Lord.  This is why we SPEAK daily of His grace, Love, Faith, and of Him.

We shall continue this journey on a greater, precious understanding of our Lord and our hearts and minds being renewed in the TRUE KNOWLEDGE of Him.

Sue Gaither