In the same way that scary movies redefine routine circumstances and turn them spooky, the Enemy has redefined some things in our head.
Crafty and subtle, Satan takes the truth and tries to redefine it. For instance, in the most effective “gotcha” kind of way found in the best horror flicks, he’s convinced a lot of believers that it’s up to them to keep themselves saved and hold it all together. His approach works because such thinking is logical. It makes sense. We hold everything else in our lives together — or, at least on the surface, it looks like we do.
We keep our popularity by the way we perform on campus. We keep good grades through our homework and study. We keep ourselves on the team through hard work and diligence. The way we live can make or break a lot of friendships. In most areas of life, it makes sense to think we’re the ones responsible for our success or failure.
Even though God’s Word is the final authority on these matters, Satan somehow has convinced many people to believe they are responsible for earning their way to eternal life and heaven. Sadly, entire religions are based on works, and many of those folks who follow these religions will remain deceived until it’s too late.
We hear God’s Word speak truth into specific situations all the time. But by the time it bounces around our brains a few times and goes through the filters that Satan and his evil world system have slipped into our heads, we talk ourselves out of God’s promises, provision, and protection. We convince ourselves that it’s still all on our shoulders.
Let’s aspire to let God have his Word back into our lives, so to speak. We need to dig deep to let him remind us of who he is and who we are now. We need to let him — and only him — define what we are responsible for and what we do with our lives.
Jesus isn’t life enhancement. He’s life. He alone is the way life works. You can’t take my Jesus home with you. You can’t take your pastor’s Jesus home with you. Only your own walk with Jesus goes home with you. A relationship with Jesus is not automatic just because you walk into a building with a pretty steeple or one that is adorned with religious symbols. Buildings don’t change your life. Songs don’t change your life. They may change your mood, but the change lasts about as long as it takes for you to get back to the parking lot.
Sooner or later, we have to realize that Jesus is more than church. Consistent study of God’s Word and consistent prayer are required to deepen our roots and redefine erroneous thinking. I like to use Romans 12:1 – 2 as a foundation:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I disciple about sixteen of my high school students and twelve middle schoolers one-on-one every week. We talk and pray through a book of the Bible five or six verses at a time.
When we start a new study, we pause to check out a few background facts. We need to know the book’s author, his audience, and his reason for writing. For instance, we know Paul wrote Romans. Right at the start of chapter 12, he writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers.” So we know he’s writing to fellow Christians. This means Paul told Christians to stop conforming to the pattern of this world. Guess what that means. It means Christians still conform to the world.
See, you thought you were the only hypocrite in the world. But Paul shows there were hypocrites way back then too. Even in the first century, with the church on fire and God shaking the world, believers blew it. They did just fine during a worship gathering, but as soon as the doors shut behind them, they faced an angry world. And they reacted like we react. They got stupid.
Paul told them to stop: “Don’t let the world shape you. You’re in the world, but you’re not of it. Stop acting like you are.”
But Paul doesn’t stay in the negative. He doesn’t just say, “Stop behaving that way.” He also gets proactive. He tells them to focus on the one thing that will change their behavior fastest. He tells them to renew their minds.
This is a big deal. God’s Word says I still need to be transformed after I’ve been transformed. My heart may be new, but my mind is still old. My thinking is still lost.
When we surrender to Christ, the spirit inside of us — the real person within the bag of bones we call a body — is renewed. Our brains are still flesh and blood that have recorded everything we’ve ever done. Our spirit is new, but we still have lost minds. Our brains become a battleground.
One minute we say, “If we confess our sins before God, he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The next minute, when we fail, we have a deep-seated fear. I messed up again. God hates me.
A little later we say, “I’m going to trust God with everything, give him all of me, and seek his kingdom.”
Yet when the rough winds start to blow, we chew our nails and wonder, Does God even know I’m here?
This constant battle wages in our minds. We have to counter Satan’s attacks with God’s Word. It’s the only way to renew our minds under the torrent of attacks from the devil and the world he controls. Scripture calls him the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), and I think of that title every time I think of airwaves. His multimedia assaults are relentless through satellite, phone, and Wi-Fi signals.
Several years ago, I studied the armor of God in Ephesians 6. I thought about the belt of truth (God’s Word that holds everything together), the breastplate of righteousness (to guard my heart), the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace (to share Christ everywhere), the helmet of salvation (to guard my mind), and the sword of the Spirit (God’s Word, the only weapon I need). I noticed it all began and ended with God’s Word. I also noticed that I needed protection for my heart and mind.
Then I thought about Philippians 2:12 – 13, where Paul tells us to work out our own salvation. A little ditty came to mind, and I have preached it ever since.
In the war of the mind, I will make my stand
In the battle of the heart and the battle of the hands.
Long before those words became the bridge to my song “Courageous,” I hammered the saying into the heads of thousands of teenagers over several years. I used it to remind them why Romans tells us we need to renew our minds by diving into God’s Word.
Have you ever sat in the middle of a prayer or worship time, only to have a really inappropriate scene from a movie or book or a nasty lyric from a song pop into your head? And you think, How did that even get in my head right now?
If you’ve been distracted by inappropriate imagery, how did it get there? You put it there when you willingly watched it in the first place.
We taint our minds with stuff we’re trying not to do anymore. We iPod and iPad our brains to death with lifestyles that we don’t live anymore because, even though we now have a new life, we’re still fans of our old lifestyle.
The only way we will ever thrive is if we first are transformed by the renewal of our minds. So begins the battle of the heart and the battle of the hands.
Point to Remember
The only way to thrive is to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.