“Having your mind transformed daily…”
The key to having what God wants you to have is learning to think like He thinks. And Romans 12:2 teaches that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. I’ve discovered several ways we need to change our thinking so we can live with the mind of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:6).
We need to change our thinking about…
God. It’s so important for us to know who God really is. He’s not an angry God, and He’s not “harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant” (Matthew 11:30). God loves you, and if you know how much He loves you right now, then you’ll have hope that the things in your life that need to change can be changed.
Ourselves. If you don’t like yourself, you’re going to have difficulty in every area of your life. Don’t demand perfection from yourself. No one is perfect, and no matter what we do, we usually don’t think it’s enough: we don’t pray enough, work hard enough, study the Bible enough, etc. God spoke to my heart one day and told me, “Joyce, you’re never enough, but I’m always more than enough.” That’s why Jesus came! Believe that in Christ, there’s more right than wrong with you, and you can do whatever you need to do in life through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 15:5; Philippians 4:13).
Trials, or the hard, painful things we go through in life. Habakkuk 3:19 says God is our strength and He will help us to “walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make spiritual progress upon [our] high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!” James 1:2-4 encourages us to “consider it wholly joyful…whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials,” because “the trial and proving of your faith” are what God works through to make us “fully developed…lacking in nothing.”
The level of importance we put on what others think about us. It’s easy to let what others do and say affect us, and to feel like “If you don’t like me, my day is ruined.” But the truth is, if we’re more concerned with being a people-pleaser than a God-pleaser, we won’t become what God created us to be and do what He’s calling us to do (Galatians 1:10).
I want to encourage you to study scriptures that reveal God’s true character and His heart for you. And dare to believe that there’s nothing in your life He can’t change—including you!
A Safe Harbor is Jesus 