8 Ways to Renew Your Mind

It all begins with the voice of God. As fallen humanity, we can’t hear a holy God on our own. Therefore, God’s love bridges the gap, and he chooses in his mercy to reveal what we need. In the Old Testament, this relationship was generally limited to a few, the prophets. Now, in the new covenant through Jesus, the veil of the old ways was torn, and every Christ follower has direct access to God and hears his voice. In fact, one of the distinctions of being in Jesus’ “flock” includes hearing his voice (John 10:27). 

Our minds have been trained by deception and selfishness since we were born, aligning with our selfish and sinful nature. And the Devil gets involved, tempting us further into rebellion against God in our thoughts and actions. We’ve been shaped by everything but the truth. We require God’s interruption, his voice from his presence and power. Thankfully, Jesus promises this great gift, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is truth, will lead us to all truth (John 16:13). What a gift, his voice and Spirit to life. Our part is to surrender, listen, and respond when the Spirit speaks. 

God’s voice contains power. He spoke light into existence with his voice, through his Word. The same Word of Christ from the Spirit will create new life within us and transform us. Over time, our thoughts will change, lining up with the truth of God. 

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With this direct access to God, our first step is to pray. We follow Jesus, and he right now acts as the great High Priest before the throne, interceding on our behalf to the Father. As disciples, we learn to live like him through prayer first. Prayer isn’t only a spiritual obligation or duty. Intentional prayer connects us with God and aligns us with his thoughts and ways. In prayer, we ask God to shape our minds and give us an eternal perspective in the temporary situation. Philippians 4:6-7 says, 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” 

God invites us to take our anxieties and worries to him and choose to be thankful for who he is and what he’s done and will do. In this, we step into his presence and supernatural peace. God not only listens to our prayers, but he also acts and guards us with peace. 

Intentional prayer means making time, even when life is busy and difficult. Regular prayer begins to change our mindset, shifting from living by our own strength to relying upon God’s love and power. When we see prayers answered, even after a long time, our faith and spiritual understanding grow exponentially. 

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Paul tells us to do things continually, in every moment. First, pray without ceasing. Next, praise. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4) Intentional praise changes the focus from ourselves to God, who alone is worthy of all praise. Worship places us in the right position where he is Lord, where he is God, and we aren’t. We practice the truth and promise that the earth will be full of his glory. Psalm 95:6 says, 

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” 

Worship begins with an act of surrender and humility in our hearts, and this flows into how we express praise through song, music, and dance. Focusing on God in this way, his character and ways can be powerful. Peter could walk on water while keeping his eyes on Jesus alone (Matthew 14:28-31). 

Praise breaks the bondage of our self-centered thoughts, our pride or worries. While we exalt him, especially difficult moments, our hearts and minds open to truth. And when we talk to God in praise, he talks back. We often hear God more clearly when engaging in worship, and his voice and presence renews our thoughts and beliefs about his love and power. 

Praise and worship are the vision of heaven, going on around the throne every moment (Revelation 7:9-12). By choosing to enter the activity of heaven, our eternal perspective becomes clearer, and heaven becomes more real. No wonder Paul says to do it always. 

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Since the Spirit leads to all truth, the Scripture becomes a primary way to hear God’s voice. The Scriptures contain authority because they’re “God-breathed,” or inspired by the Spirit, from heaven. Through genres like history, poetry, prophecy, gospels, letters, and more, the eternal perspective remains consistent. God’s Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and when we engage with it in the Spirit, it transforms the way we think, feel, and live. Scripture isn’t academic information. From the Spirit’s inspiration, the Bible shares revelation about who God is, who we are, and how the Father calls us to live in Christ. Psalm 119:105 says, 

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” 

Our world offers confusion and conflicting messages. The Bible reveals a secure foundation of truth, shining the way before us, showing us both the path God desires for us and our place within it. 

Reading Scripture alone gives us time for reflection and attuning our hearts to his voice. Making this a habit renews our minds. As we meditate on Scripture, our thoughts begin to reflect God’s truth instead of the noise around us. We increase our ability to see life as God does, not ourselves or the world. 

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Every spiritual discipline has the goal of engaging with the unseen realm. And every discipline should be done both alone and with our faith community. 

God didn’t save us alone; he’s after a people built up together to be his house and temple, living stones carefully placed alongside each other for a collective witness. God transforms our thinking through spiritual community, where we use our supernatural gifts to serve others, and they serve us with theirs. We were designed to work together, not in isolation. Romans 12:4-6 says, 

“For just as each of us has one body with many members … so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” 

There are some things God will only give us individually through our personal relationship with him. At the same time, God will only give other things through the church, the family of God. Without our spiritual community, we can’t properly grow and mature. In fact, because of this divine design, isolation leads to unbelief, the opposite of faith (Hebrews 3:12-13). 

We learned deception in the world, among people, and we get transformed by truth the same way. God uses our spiritual family to speak truth, call out or gifts and purpose, and reflect his love. When we participate in the church community, regularly and with humility, our minds are renewed by what we learn and how it must be acted out in love. 

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The most famous verse says, “For God so loved the world he gave …” He gave himself, the best he had, for our good. Our hearts were born selfish and self-centered. To transform our brains, we choose to give, especially when it costs us something. We then break our selfishness, fear, and poverty thinking. Generosity changes our thinking. Instead of holding onto what we have, we trust God to be our true provider. And the more we see him do so, show up miraculously in provision, the more our minds are transformed. Acts 20:35 says, 

“It is more blessed to give than receive.” 

It seems counterintuitive, especially to our own way of thinking. How can giving away give us more? When we give sacrificially, we enter God’s kingdom, which works differently than this fallen world. In God’s heaven, giving leads to gain. Perhaps not materially rich, but wealthy in peace, joy, and freedom from the ties of this world. 

God’s giving of his Son had a goal—the good of others. To shift our thinking, it must be the same with us. Sacrificial generosity shifts our focus from ourselves to the eternal good of others. We align with God’s heart for the poor, the hurting, and the marginalized. Generosity is an attitude of the heart and goes beyond money to time, attention, and love. And it will cost us something. But we then rely upon God, who promises to reward us many times over whatever we give in his name. 

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Faith must lead to action. Otherwise, it’s dead. Transformed thinking flows to transformed living. We need to reject belief as simply a mental acknowledgment of a fact or doctrine without a changed life. Biblical belief clearly expresses a repentant, changed mind, resulting in different behavior. Reading the Bible can be powerful, but real transformation happens when we apply it. Jesus didn’t call the disciples to a class with worksheets so they could parrot answers back to him. They walked with him, saw what he did, and he taught them to minister in the same ways. 

Applying truth, which is real faith and belief, means we begin to own it for ourselves. Truth then goes beyond theory and into reality. We see the impacts and responses. And the Bible becomes more real. James 1:22 says, 

“Don’t merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” 

Seems pretty clear. Much of our Christian walk, unfortunately, consists of hearing the word. And yet that alone actually leads to deception. When we choose to obey God’s Word, he renews our minds by the truth experienced. Think of the difference between hearing about Disneyland and going there. We can parrot what we hear about the place, but that’s empty. Going there, we can speak authoritatively, from experience, about how real and amazing something is. 

And then, the greater we own and experience truth, the more we can pass it on. 

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Just as God gave, heaven rejoices, and Jesus intercedes, God’s heart passes on his truth to empower others. To be his children and express his love, we do the same. As a former high school teacher and a pastor, soberly thinking of how I would express God’s truth on a Sunday, nothing helps clarify truth than having to teach it and taking it seriously. When we pass on what we’ve learned, it not only blesses others but deepens the truth in our own hearts. Teaching and sharing require us to do the hard and amazing work of processing, understanding, and living out God’s Word. We own it for ourselves more than ever. 

A major part of Jesus’ ministry was doing just this, and then telling his disciples to do the same. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Discipleship does more than sharing knowledge. From Jesus’ example, we walk with others, modeling truth with how we live, and help them grow and find their own purpose to pass it on to others. 

Discipling others brings accountability. It keeps us from becoming passive in our faith. We live out the reality that truth isn’t for us alone but to be shared, as someone shared Christ with us. It doesn’t have to be a title or ministry position; all it takes is to start sharing with one person. 

As we teach and disciple, God deepens our understanding and renews our minds, transforming us into people who not only know the truth but also live it out. 

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