If You Want to Change, Start with Your Thinking By Rick Warren

Daily Hope Devotional Thursday 11th August 2016

“Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes”
- Ephesians 4:23 NLT, second edition.

Change requires new thinking. In order to change, we must learn the truth and start making good choices, but we also must change the way we think.

The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change the way you act, you start by changing the way you think. In addition, if you want to change the way you feel, you must start with the way you think.

For instance, you can say, “I need to love my husband more,” but that isn’t going to work. You can’t fight your way into a feeling. You must change the way you think about your husband, about your kids, about your wife. That will change the way you feel, which will then change the way you act. The Bible says, “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes” (Ephesians 4:23 NLT, second edition).

The battle for sin, the battle to deal with those defects in your life that you don’t like, starts in your mind. If you want to change anything in your behavior or anything in your emotions, you start with your thoughts and your attitude.

The renewal of your mind is related to the word “repentance.” I know repentance is a dirty word for a lot of people. They think it means something bad, something they don’t really want to do, something painful. They think of a guy standing on a street corner with a sign that says, “Repent! The world’s about to end!”

Repentance is about more than changing your behavior. It is about changing your mind and learning to think differently. “Repent” simply means to make a mental U-turn.

You turn from guilt to forgiveness. You turn from frustration to freedom, from darkness to light, from hatred and bitterness to love.

You may also need to change the way you think about God. He’s not mad at you; he’s mad about you! You’re deeply flawed, but you’re deeply loved.

Start with your mind, and change the way you think about your relationships, the economy, the world, and your past, present, and future. Changing the way you think will then affect your emotions and your behavior.

Talk It Over

Where can you get the power to make changes that you don’t think you can make on your own?
Why do you think repentance is required for the renewal of your mind?
How do you need to change the way you think about your most important relationships?

Comments

His Channels

Rom.1:20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God [with emphasis]. So far we have examined three channels God uses to speak to us. If you are not reading your Bible consistently, if you are not listening to messages over and over again, and if you are not accountable to other believers, you do not have believers that are speaking into your life, you have already missed three main channels God speaks through. Channel #4: God speaks to us through His Creation. Ps.19:1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world [with emphasis]. God’s cre...

Setting Prisoners Free

Our Daily Bread Devotional 4th October, 2016 Read: Psalm 146 Bible in a Year: Isaiah 20-22; Ephesians 6 The Lord sets prisoners free. (Psalm 146:7) When my wife and I visited the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force near Savannah, Georgia, we were especially moved by the prisoner-of-war exhibit, with its re-creation of a German prisoner-of-war camp’s barracks. Marlene’s dad, Jim, served in the Eighth Air Force, the “Mighty Eighth,” as they flew missions over Europe during World War II. During the war, the Eighth Air Force suffered over 47,000 injuries and more than 26,000 deaths. Jim was one of those shot down and held as a prisoner of war. As we walked through the exhibit, we recalled Jim telling about the absolute joy he and his fellow prisoners felt the day they were set free. God’s care for the oppressed and liberation of the imprisoned are declared in Psalm 146. The psalmist describes the one who “upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the ...

Not For Destruction

DCLM Daily Manna October 19th, 2016 Text: 2 Corinthians 10:1-11 Key Verse: “For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed” (2 Corinthians 10:8). Lord Acton was not wrong when he said: “Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In our society, we often see the reckless use of power by those who are privileged to be vested with power to serve the people. Instead of exercising the power for the benefits of the common man who they are expected to serve and defend, they turn the power to an object of oppression with which they victimize and oppress the poor. Paul consciously reminded himself and his congregation that the authority the Lord has given him and his team was not for the destruction of the people but for their edification. Even in the face of obvious provocation by the people, ministers must not turn around to use their authority to vex the pe...

The Insights

Search This Blog