By Staff
The human mind is a data bank filled with a lifetime of information.
The human mind is also capable of organizing data and arriving at conclusions.
There is a default mode in the human mind of fear, insecurity, and inadequacy pre-programmed through some devastating circumstances that cause us to think a certain way. If the default is not over-ridden continually, we will end up acting out the default mode.
God created us perfect. And he gave us the power to think and choose. He allowed Satan, also a created being, to present thought patterns and a lifestyle that ran in opposition to God's plan.
Adam and Eve were the first people. They had the privilege of being personally and practically formed by God's hands (Genesis 2:7, 22-23). God placed them in such an idyllic environment that it is difficult to conceive that they would do anything to change their circumstances. But they did. They chose to believe what Satan said instead of what God had said, acted on that belief, and fell from the perfect situation that God had placed them in.
This fall, caused by sinning against God's intents and command, caused the default condition of innocence, trust, and dependence to be changed to what we are born with today: fear, insecurity, and inadequacy.
God does not leave us in the hands of Satan to be enslaved by him and the mindset that we really do not matter to anybody, and that if we are going to get anything or be anything, we have to do it ourselves.
The first thing God did was send His Son Jesus Christ to earth to live as the God-man – fully God yet fully man and limited by human frailty.
Jesus went up against Satan and defeated him in every way. The first encounter was in the wilderness when Satan came and tempted Jesus with some very compelling choices (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus withstood Satan. Satan did conspire with willing humans in a plot to silence Jesus once for all (Acts 2:23). God raised Jesus from the dead in the most glorious display of power ever seen (Acts 2:24).
The life of Jesus Christ and the teachings of Jesus Christ, coupled with His death, burial, and resurrection, set the stage for every human to be released from the bondage of fear, insecurity, and inadequacy, and to be transformed into people who can live in confidence and victory, assured of God's love and care.
The shift in mindset is not automatic. It comes when we volitionally act upon the facts of the gospel, which is the truth about Jesus Christ. Once we surrender our lives to Christ, the path to all God wants us to be is a process of learning, believing, and applying the truth of God, which counters the lies of Satan and the default condition of our minds.
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans, chapter 12, verse 2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Saving faith is the beginning; lifelong study of the Word of God is the means to having a renewed mind.
The apostle Paul gives us further instruction about our thinking in the epistle to the Philippians: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).
Our minds are deluged with everything imaginable. We are not left to sort out the truth all alone. The truth of God is supreme and is energized by the Holy Spirit of God. Once we get into the Bible, the Word of God, and keep at it, our thinking will be changed.
Our thinking needs to be changed because what we think, we are.