“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

— Romans 12:2 NASB

Paul understands that our minds need to be renewed and untethered from the patterns of thinking and being of the world that we’ve inherited or cultivated in our lives, which are inevitably self-destructive. Therefore, we best position ourselves to be given to God in complete worship when we…

RENEW OUR MINDS.

It’s like when you get software updates on your smartphone. You see, updating your cell phone can fix bugs, give you new features and usually helps the phone run much better. But if you don’t update your phone, then you won’t be able to unlock the fullest potential of the physical phone itself. And this is what it’s like when we renew our minds. We’ve got worldly bugs in our minds that need to be fixed and new spiritual features to be downloaded, so that we can unlock the fullest potential of our physical bodies.

Paul gives us the secret to being transformed by the renewing of our minds in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He says in 2nd Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2nd Corinthians 3:18 NASB. Our minds are renewed as we regularly look at the glory of the Lord, which is to see the revelation of His character of love. And this is most vividly seen in the Scriptures, especially in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. As you fix your mind on Him throughout all of Scripture, the Holy Spirit begins to do the supernatural work of renewing your mind, creating new neurological pathways in your brain and thus transforming you into the same image or character of Christ from one stage of character growth to the next.

And even though it’s actually the work of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, He invites us to position ourselves, by faith, in order to give Him the most room to work. This takes place best through certain practices like reading Scripture with Jesus as the central focus, and then meditating on Scripture in silence and solitude, preferably while walking in nature. You may want to add journaling what you saw and heard while reading and meditating. Then in your prayer time you’ll want to practice daily confessing and repenting of sin, trusting God for the forgiveness He’s given you in Christ, and then asking for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. You’ll also want to guard the avenues to your mind by removing sinful things from occupying your mind and replacing them with spiritually fulfilling things. The Holy Spirit also renews your mind through generally good mental health practices such as laughter, decluttering your space, reducing the use of social media, getting therapy, resisting a negative attitude of complaining and replacing it with gratitude, avoiding conspiracy theories, and just an overall trust in God.

You see, when your mind is being renewed, then you’ll have the motivation and better ability to more consistently care for your entire body. My friend, you are a human being, not a human doing! And focusing on your overall wellbeing, mind and body, is not selfish. The orientation is actually the opposite; it’s positioning yourself in the best way to love God and people, for this what true worship is all about! And this is also were Paul takes the rest of his letter in Romans 12 and onward.

This is what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 22:37-39, when He quotes Moses in Deuteronomy, to reveal what the greatest commandment is, which embraces all others. He says, “…“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37-39 NASB. Jesus says we are to love God with our all, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Notice that you need to have a self that you care for, in a healthy way, in order to love God and neighbor well. You see, in light of God’s abundant mercy towards us, we best positions ourselves to be given to God in complete worship when we care for our bodies and renew our minds, which is spiritual self-care. I say spiritual self-care, because maintaining the entirety of your wellbeing is spiritual and is focused on loving God and loving people.

And why should you prioritize spiritual self-care? Paul would say to you, as he did in 1st Corinthians 6:20, “For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1st Corinthians 6:20 NASB. The price for your body was the extremely expensive body and blood of Jesus, shed for your sins at calvary. In pouring out His love, grace and forgiveness on you at the cross, He secured your salvation for all eternity and therefore, purchased you as His own! You have been redeemed! You have invaluable worth! And so in light of God’s great mercy, your heart should be moved in faith to do spiritual self-care of your mind and body, so you can give yourself completely over to Him in the spiritual service of worship.