Recovering Our Whole Person - The Way We Think

 RECOVERING OUR WHOLE PERSON: The Way We Think

We all want to be better people – growing and maturing well, letting go of harmful attitudes and behaviours we notice in our lives.  Too often, though,  we are looking to change our behaviour rather than change our heart. 

As we’ve been reflecting these days, we are a wonderfully complex human being, a spiritual person who has a soul and lives in a body.  And the truth is, real change in words and actions only comes when what we believe changes.  Look at how the Bible describes this:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:1-2

How can we hope for change?  Give our lives to God and surrender all we are to God’s plan and the direction of His Spirit in our everyday affairs.

These verses clearly show us that our behaviours and customs will only ever change when we receive God’s information and allow that to redirect what we think and believe about what God’s will for our lives is.

That requires that we recognize that there are beliefs we now hold that will have to change.  There are things we think that are different from what God has revealed in the Bible, for example, and when we discover those differences change will only come when we make a choice to lay down our incorrect assumptions and choose for God’s truth.

And even when we make a choice to go God’s way and follow everything Jesus has shown and taught us, we need to stay in communication with God.  Here’s Jesus’ warning about that:

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” 

Matthew 26:41

Loving God, we do want our words, our actions, our thoughts, our whole being to reflect what is true.  Help us today to humbly seek after truth and embrace it as we are exposed to it.

We know that will mean some challenging choices for our own desires and because the opinions of others will often run differently to what You show us.  Fill us with courage to make the right choice anyway.  Amen

Today let’s give God that chance to transform us as we accept His truth and allow it to change the way we think.