Renewing of Your Mind

Meeting with God gives us the renewing of your mind, this incredible opportunity we have to change and develop beyond what is greater than ourselves.

 

This is an act of worship too, as our trust and obedience to think right without distraction or personal agendas.

 

We are called and empowered to change our pagan thinking, even our faulty or shallow Christian mindset away from our selfish nature unto His character. Until we do, the deeper things of God's will and His precepts, will be vacant and not even be available to us. This passage is a testament that our ideas and attitudes directly shape our values and lifestyle. To get it right, we are to be shaping our mind to God's Word (Rom. 8:5-9; 12; 13:11-14; 2 Cor. 4:18; 1 John 2:17).

When we are in Christ, we are His Christians called to be deep with friends that are bonded as family. Our relationship with the Lord must be transparent and not secretive (unless you live in a closed Muslim country)! And what flows from our reverence that prompts our obedience and conviction by our gratitude for what our Lord has done and for who He is; they are the compassion for the needy, and the lost.

• Our lives must be motivated by who we are in Christ and nothing else.
• Being freed from sin must show a response and a responsibility, so what is yours (Luke 10:36-37; Eph. 4:23)?

 

Jesus calls us, His people and passionately urges us that God's will is to think rightly of His precepts. That means to make our faith so real it impacts others around us. And, we are give a simple call on how we can do this: To see our life as an extension of God's grace and hands, so we are willing and able to be lined up to Him, so we can be better used by Him. Then as His living sacrifice, we can be living, growing and performing agents of God. We are not alone in this essential manner, remember as a Christian the Holy Spirit transforms us completely, all we are and then all that we are to do, our will, plans and our opportunities (2 Cor. 3:18).

 

Our prime motivator should be our gratitude, the essence of true worship, and how we respond to God.

 

This means we must have gratitude for what Christ did for us. We have been forgiven and saved; why fret and worry? This fuels all of our motives and contentment. If we do not have gratitude, we will not live out our Christian lives well and we may even become like our Jewish ancestors-stiff-necked and an insult to God Our sacrifice is not of animals; it is the offering Christ gave us, how we respond of ourselves with proper reverence and attitude. This also means that we now have a greater revelation, and thus a greater responsibility (Luke 10:20; John 4:19-24; Rom. 3:24-26; 4:23-25; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 9:15; Heb. 11:40).

 

 

 

 

Meet God and be transformed agents of His Work!

We must do our best to immerse ourselves to meet Him, to know Him, to internalize His precepts and live them out for His glory and our mutual benefit. Therefore, we must listen, learn, and do (James 1:21-27).

How do I meet with God? Simple. How do you make friends?
How do you get to know them?
How do you nurture your rapport and build a relationship with them?

This is one of the applications of Romans 12, which is pretty much the same way we grow in Christ. To build friendships, we spend time with people to listen, learn, experience, and discover; our trust builds and our relationship builds. We do this also with God, spending time to nurture our relationship, in person to His Person by reading the Bible, studying His precepts, worship and praying amongst other spiritual disciplines.

Why? God wants us to know Him, and to do this we need to meet with Him. God wants you transformed and renewed. This means we must be in transformative engagement with Him through His Word to do this building and nurturing! We are to know Him, grow in Him by our adoring engagement with Him by listening so that we will be learning His calls, commands, instructions, history, even His poetry--all from in the Bible, in His Cradle of Instruction. To do this, we learn to trust and grow to obey; this is the essence of being a growing committed Christian and collectively as a vibrant church!

Meeting God is up to Him. Meeting with God is up to us.

There are certain things that must take place to know Him more. First, we believe. We accept. We have faith. Then, we cultivate to make the application of our faith real and effectual.

What a cultivation tool?

The Gospel is. The Gospel shows how we shall live in faith-from doctrine to duty-from what we glean, learning and living. This is the cultivation process of getting to know God. This translates our faith to the practical aspect of the Gospel. As Christians, we have received the greatest gift conceivable. We have been saved, not of any effort or reason on our part except by faith.

What do we do to live fully in Christ?

We meet with Him! We do this not by osmosis, birthright or wishfulness; rather, this faith-this beautiful and complete relationship with our Father-is cultivated by our due diligence in connecting with Our Lord, building relationships and increasing trust-just as we would do with any trusted friend.