Renewing the Mind

Thank God that Jesus was the type of Man that would go to the other side of the sea for a person.  In Mark 5:1-29 He met a man that was in pain [physical suffering or distress, mental or emotional torment and suffering] and healed him by bring him to a right state of mind.  This man was in so much pain from life that he became mentally ill to the point that many unclean spirits entered him.  This man was left alone, tortured and inflicting more pain through cutting using sharp stones on his body.  This pain caused him to run and live in a tomb.  This pain caused him to be bound in chains until he was so enraged that he broke the chains only to bring himself further harm.  He needed to be set free and that is what Jesus did for him.

Doesn’t this situation sound familiar for many?  Only to be freed from one addiction and thrown into another! People are afraid of pain, which is part of the process, a part of life and certainly a part of us in an effort to renew the mind.  When we are set free from something we quickly latch on to something else.  This has to do with the battle in the mind.

Don’t you wish there was a big erase button to clear out all the clutter and damage in the mind? But there is not… this is simply called RENEWAL to us.  This means change, new, the act of renewing and reviving the mind.  This takes a whole lot of time and effort.  We do this by committing to a new lifestyle and consistent relationship with God, study of the Word, prayer, worship and fellowship at church.

I recently had purchased a new laptop with a windows operating system because I had exhausted all the space using a Mac Book pro.  I needed to wipe out the memory of the Mac Book so that my husband could use it and I would just start fresh with my new Lenovo book.   In doing the switch and clean up with the laptops I came to the conclusion that we are so much like these computers.  I analyzed the whole process on setting up the new computer and cleaning out the old ones.  Each in itself was its own process because of the different operating systems and both were extremely complex when it came to cleaning and setting them up.   The first issue I encountered was exceeding all available space on the Mac Book Pro.  I had tried as much as I could to clean it out bit by bit but I was too close to the 500 Gig capacity no matter how much I tried to delete from the hard drive.  I was very selective on what to keep and what to get rid of.  But If I wanted the computer to be restored and function better before handing it over to another I would have to wipe the memory completely clean.  I had to buy an external drive, purchase another software tool to help wipe the computer and start to tackle on this lengthy process.

All the while doing this computer clean up, I thought of my spiritual, mental and emotional being at this time of my life.  I am also undergoing a lengthy process for restoration. I wish it was that easy to DELETE things in my life.  Things I have done, things I am experiencing and also even come to a point where I can actually delete the memories that continually haunt me during this process.  I find that I could relate with this man in the tomb.  Thank God Jesus came just for him.  He crossed all the way over the side of the sea just to bring this man into a right state of mind as it states in Mark 5:15.  Look how important that was for Jesus to make someone whole in their mind!

Today there are so many people walking around, filling the church pews, leaving this place & making a mess because they are not renewed.  Their minds are seriously polluted from life.  Maybe even sitting in places just like a body and their mind is in another place!  How hard it is to get the mind to concentrate [to put or bring into a SINGLE place, to bring to a center, one point, focus, to separate] like a camera zooming in and out of focus, that is what is happening to the mind.  It gets blurry because of life, problems, issues, concerns, etc.  The mind carries too much build up… thoughts are uncontrolled, uncensored and unfiltered.  Do we have control of that? We certainly must! But it takes work, effort, practice and exercise of that.  If we want that change and transformation then we have to renew the mind.

The following scriptures below tell us that we are able:

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,  casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,  and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

So there is a way at renewing the mind.  The steps are outlined in the word of God for us, we just need to practice it aggressively and no longer practice the things that keep us in bondage!   Turn the effort over that we put into chaos and place that effort into its rightful place of a daily renewal by the Word of God.