What if all of your thoughts and actions were on YouTube as a video everyone could watch? Well, your mind is like your own private video that replays your thoughts and actions over and over again, and sometimes these thoughts and actions lead you to keep making the wrong decisions.
Paul talks about this situation like this “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15, 18-20
Paul does provide an answer to this problem… “ There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2. The Holy Spirit takes God’s Word and the words spoken by Christ, makes them real, and applies them to your life! The Holy Spirit lives inside you, and is your helper, comforter and teacher, and is the one who helps renew your mind.
The Bible clearly shows us examples of life without the Holy Spirit. When we rely on our own thinking and understanding, limited to human reason and resources, we are following the ‘natural mind’.
Read the following scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 4:17-18, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Romans 1:28-31
In Ephesians 4:17-18 is says that this thinking is futile, darkened in understanding, separated from God because of ignorance, and ignorant because of hardened hearts.
The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to renew your mind! The ‘natural mind’ and the ‘renewed mind’ have the same basic functions – thinking, judging, reasoning, and evaluating. The difference is who controls the process. The renewed mind is obedient to Christ. The natural mind thinks from a humanistic, sin viewpoint.
Finish today’s study by reading Romans 8:1-14.
Daily Thoughts: What did you get from today’s study?
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I liked this study. I actually have been thinking a lot about things that these verses talked about. I have been thinking a lot about the fruits of the spirit, and how to grow more of them in my life. There is of course work to be done, and I like Ephesians 4:17-18 in talking about how the people have no shame. And I know having shame and realizing that I need more and more of Jesus, is a good start to seriously changing. So, it was like a hope verse (: I really liked all of the verses. They are good verses to memorize and be thinking about to control thoughts.
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