Hi everyone, I’m back from a week of camping and hiking with my family (like my hair after five days without a shower?) and ready to get started on my new renewing of the mind project. Here it is: Make a daily list and renew my mind every time I don’t feel like doing the next thing on the list.
Scary.
I’m not a list person by nature, nor am I a get-it-done sort of person so this is a project I can’t do in my own strength. I’m looking forward to seeing what God will do.
How about you? Have you chosen your project yet? Purchased your journal? Ready to get involved in your own transformation? If you haven’t made a commitment to renewing your mind before, you’ll be surprised to see how God works through this discipline.
Fine Tuning Your Project
Before you get started, let’s spend a little time talking about your goal. You’ll want to make sure your goal is the right size for the amount of time you have available to renew your mind.
For example, let’s say your project is to stop worrying and you’re a worry-crazy person. If you say, I’ll renew my mind every time I worry, you’ll be renewing your mind all day.
If you don’t have that kind of time to give to your project (and most of us don’t), you can limit it in two different ways:
Make a Number Goal
First, you could make a number goal: I’ll renew my mind twice a day in the area of worry before I go to bed each night. If you make this goal, then each evening before you go to bed, you would think back to what you were worrying about that day and renew your mind regarding that worry. Or you could renew your mind during the day whenever a worry comes up. (I’ll show you what that will look like in another post.)
Make a Situation Goal
You could also limit your goal by choosing a smaller worry topic. For example: I will renew my mind every time I worry about my son John (or my finances or my grades). This might lead to one or two days without renewing your mind at all and then another day where you’ll have to renew your mind three or four times.
Either way works well, but you may want to renew your mind at least once a day to develop the habit of the renewing of the mind.
Setting Your Renewing of the Mind Goal
If you have time right now, pull out your journal and answer the following question: How often do you plan to renew your mind? I’m planning to renew my mind every time I don’t feel like doing the next job on my list. How about you?
I think setting a situation goal is so powerful. A lot of times there are triggers to our incorrect thoughts. I get insulted, so I get angry. I am bored, so I want to eat. I am stressed, so I want to procrastinate. Recognizing those triggers helps us to intentionally replace bad thought patterns with good ones (the thought patterns of a renewed mind).
Well said, Loren! The nice thing about situation goals is that they remind us to go to God every time that situation comes up so He can change our thinking. And the more often we replace lies with truth, the sooner we’ll start responding with truth first time around.
I try and start my days renewing my mind and getting reading for the day by reading my Bible and connecting with God. Throughout the day I also pray and think about different Bible passages. I think it’s important to renew our minds throughout the day. As humans we sin, worry, stress, and can allow those things to effect our life, unless we renew our thoughts and mind. Great reminder here.
That all sounds great, Dan. I like the fact that you start the day with God and keep going.
I renew my mind throughout the week to gain victory over my eating habits & overcome depression. Practically I have set up several reminders on my cell phone at different times of the day with key scripture references. For example on a Tuesday at 10:10 am a reminder is set for John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal, kill & destroy; I have come that they may have life, & have it to the full! A gentle reminder of who steals my joy & what Christs best for me is – to enjoy life in abundance.
My screen saver on my phone is 1 Cor 10:13 reminding me that God will always provide a way out of temptation.
I love that, Viv! That’s so fun that you coordinate the Bible verses with the same time on your phone! And I love the idea of the alarms. I tried that for awhile and it was really helpful. I think I set them for about every two or three hours and took a minute to stop and talk to God. It really helped me from becoming obsessive about writing during the day. I’m glad you told me about it. I should try that again! Thanks!