In 2017, I wrote a book called Renewed: How Jesus Transforms Your Mind. This is the beginning of a series of articles based on that book’s content. Hope you find them helpful.
Why the whole Christian battle is fought in the mind.
The heart is a big deal. It sets the course of our lives. Jesus made it plain that whatever fills the heart eventually leaks out of us: “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). We don’t really need anyone to snitch on us — our words and actions give us away. And we always pursue what we treasure, because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
God designed the human heart to chase its desires with pit-bull tenacity. That’s simultaneously our greatest asset and our greatest problem. Let me connect a few dots. Apart from God, none of us is good (Luke 18:19), so left to ourselves we can’t produce good fruit. We’re born spiritually dead and disconnected from God (Ephesians 2:1), which is why we make lower-case gods out of created things that crumble under the weight of our expectations. That’s what Jeremiah means: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (17:9) — it keeps leading us from god to god, always promising the next one will deliver.
The only fix is a rebirth (John 3:3). And in the new birth, three things happen at once. God says:
“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you… And I will put my Spirit within you.” — Ezekiel 36:26-27
New heart, new spirit, and the Holy Spirit. The new heart and new spirit together form what Paul calls the new self — the new creation of 2 Corinthians 5:17. So here’s the good news and the catch in one breath: you have a new heart, but you still have an old mind.
The day your new self is born, the old self is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). Yet the old self still has a voice, still has an appetite. What gives it staying power is the flesh — our fallen body and our fallen mind, the unredeemed part of us that remains until it dies. The flesh is life support for a dead man. And the mind is the trickiest part of it, because God wired the brain for efficiency. It will always look for the fastest, easiest route to satisfaction — the path of least resistance — which is exactly why it keeps suggesting enticing detours when the new heart points us to God.
This is where about ninety-five percent of the Christian battle happens. Notice what the New Testament never tells you to do: it never says renew your heart, because your heart is already new. What it says, on repeat, is renew your mind.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” — Romans 12:2
Set your mind on the Spirit (Romans 8:6) — which means relating to the Holy Spirit as a Person you can grieve and gladden, not a force. Be transformed by renewing your mind — and since about ninety percent of God’s will is already spelled out in his Word, you discern it by getting the Word into you. Think on whatever is true, honorable, and pure (Philippians 4:8), because where your mind wanders when nothing demands it is a fair reading of your spiritual temperature. Prepare your mind for action (1 Peter 1:13).
Don’t confuse this with the power of positive thinking. Renewing the mind is a renovation of how you see your whole world — filling your mind with God’s thoughts instead of your own and herding your thoughts toward godly ends. So get in the Word today. Start a conversation with the Spirit within you. Take your thoughts captive. The conflict against this old mind is where the fight is — and it’s only by advancing there that your new self gets room to shine the light of Jesus into a dark world.
