Skip to main content

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

By

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?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

You've been blessed through this reading share with Others. Share the DO's and the DON'T.

Popular posts from this blog

Dominion Mandate Daily Devotional February 26, 2016

By
THEME: RETREAT TO REFRESH READ: Matt. 11:25-30 When some musicians want to release great songs, they retreat to secluded places where they can reflect, meditate and create. Some choose places overlooking the vast oceans, some choose where there are waterfalls, and some choose places with thick forestations.  As they observe the beauty of nature, the swift moves and songs of the soaring birds, the colourful flowering vegetations, the serene beaches and the unending waves of the nearby waters, they capture inspiration that helps them develop the hit songs they have been longing for. I met one of the world’s renowned musicians in Atlanta, USA a few years ago where journalist surrounded him and were asking what he had come to do and why his beards had grown so much. He said that his last album did not perform well enough and he was incubating another one he wanted to release that would perform better. He said that he needed to pull away from the Noise of New York and California and
Post a Comment
Read more

A NEW MONTH OF DIVINE ANNOUNCEMENT

By
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Luke 1:13 The Bible is replete of records on how God announced some events before they finally happened. Because you made it into the new Month, God will specially announce you in Jesus name.  Whenever God want to do something unusual, He first of all announce it, for instance, when He wanted to delivered the children of Israelite from the hand of the philistine whom He has delivered them to, He sent an angel to break the new to the parent of the deliverer - Samson. Judges 13.  When God wanted to turn the hearts of men back to Himself, He sent angel Gabriel to announced the birth of John the Baptist to his father, Zacharias. Also when God was fully ready for the redemption of man, He first announced it to the one whose body His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ will pass through to the earth. Luke 1:26-38. That was their time b
Post a Comment
Read more

A Hidden Treasure

By
The sower soweth the word. (Mark 4:14) Right now, at this very moment, you have hidden within you a treasure that can change the world. A treasure that can change a man's eternal destiny, that can take him to heaven and save him from hell. A treasure that can turn a person's poverty into prosperity, his sickness into health, his sorrow into joy. You have within you the all-powerful Word of God. Don't keep it to yourself. Plant it wherever you go! Sow it into the hearts of those you meet. Share it at every opportunity. "But I don't know how!" you may say. Then start learning. Let these three steps help guide the way. 1: Make a decision. Make up your mind and heart today that you are going to share the Word with others no matter what! Determine right now that it's the most important thing you'll ever do. Commit to it. Once you've done that, you'll find the rest is easy. 2: Prepare yourself. Spend time meditating in the Word each
1 comment
Read more