Live in the Word
Over this past season of the pandemic with so many upheavals in society, you may be struggling with fears, worries, negative thoughts, and emotional distress at a level you've never experienced before. It might be that once again you're wrestling with an addiction or bad habit that you thought was in your past. Perhaps you're realizing that you still have strongholds of thinking that are contrary to what God says and need to be broken. So what do you do?
The apostle Paul says that if we want to become more like God, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). He knew that we can't keep thinking the old way and have the new things that God wants to do in our life. Jesus put it this way: "No one pours new wine into old wineskins" (Mark 2:22). We can't be conformed to this world's culture with its wrong types of thinking. When you renew your mind, you transform your life.
If you've given your life to Jesus, you're a brand-new creation, and your spirit has been made new. The problem is that our mind needs to catch up with what's going on in our spirit, which can only happen when we are no longer conforming to our old thinking but rather submitting ourselves to the Word of God. When you put yourself under the teaching of God's Word, you dislodge strongholds of wrong thoughts in your mind and break the grip of addictions.
Fortunately, we have the Word of God at our fingertips--printed Bibles and Bible websites, Bible apps, Christian music and ministry podcasts, and Christian TV and radio. We choose what we listen to and watch, and when we spend time in the Word of God, the strongholds that are trying to hold you back will be broken. Paul says, "To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask, think, or imagine." I love that. God can do anything, but listen to the second part: "According to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20). God is saying that when you align your mind with the power that's in you, your mind will be transformed.
You're in a battle, and it's time to declare, "I'm not going to be held down by old ways and old patterns of thinking. I'm going to live in the Word every day." Whether you're fighting an addiction or emotional distress or wrong thought patterns, listen to the Word of God constantly and let it bathe and transform your mind as it renews you. It will break the power of the old and bring you into the new ways of God.
The apostle Paul says that if we want to become more like God, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). He knew that we can't keep thinking the old way and have the new things that God wants to do in our life. Jesus put it this way: "No one pours new wine into old wineskins" (Mark 2:22). We can't be conformed to this world's culture with its wrong types of thinking. When you renew your mind, you transform your life.
If you've given your life to Jesus, you're a brand-new creation, and your spirit has been made new. The problem is that our mind needs to catch up with what's going on in our spirit, which can only happen when we are no longer conforming to our old thinking but rather submitting ourselves to the Word of God. When you put yourself under the teaching of God's Word, you dislodge strongholds of wrong thoughts in your mind and break the grip of addictions.
Fortunately, we have the Word of God at our fingertips--printed Bibles and Bible websites, Bible apps, Christian music and ministry podcasts, and Christian TV and radio. We choose what we listen to and watch, and when we spend time in the Word of God, the strongholds that are trying to hold you back will be broken. Paul says, "To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask, think, or imagine." I love that. God can do anything, but listen to the second part: "According to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20). God is saying that when you align your mind with the power that's in you, your mind will be transformed.
You're in a battle, and it's time to declare, "I'm not going to be held down by old ways and old patterns of thinking. I'm going to live in the Word every day." Whether you're fighting an addiction or emotional distress or wrong thought patterns, listen to the Word of God constantly and let it bathe and transform your mind as it renews you. It will break the power of the old and bring you into the new ways of God.