I am not really one to create new year’s resolutions however I do believe it’s important for us to continually assess our hearts and minds. For a lot of us, the new year marks a new beginning. So, it’s a good time to do this assessment and renew our minds. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us to renew our minds daily (Romans 12:2). So, if I’m going to make a resolution this year, it is to renew my mind daily in the word of God.
I am trusting God for restoration in my life. I am praying that He would restore me where I have fallen short in all the areas of my life. I am asking Him to change me to make me more like Him and that I may live with a pure heart and clean hands. I do believe that as followers of Jesus we need to ask ourselves if we are living HOLY lives. We need to assess our hearts and minds and where there is sin, we need to repent and ask God to fix us… to restore us to HOLINESS.
Assessing Your Mind
What do you think about as you go about your day? Every moment of every day you and I have the freedom to think about whatever we want. Our minds may fill with worries, gossip, or fear. Our thoughts may cultivate anger, lust, compulsive working, people-pleasing, or depression. Or we can “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:1) in God’s Word, letting it diagnose us (Hebrews 4:12), wash us (Ephesians 5:26), and give us life (Genesis 1, Matthew 4:4).
Truly, the thoughts you choose to dwell on become the most important factors in how you feel and what you say and do. Ultimately, your thinking determines the kind of person you become. The Proverb is true which suggests how a person thinks in his heart is who they will become (Proverbs 23:7).
Renewal Through the Word
We then need to declare scripture into our lives. Romans 8:1 says that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is a power scripture that we can declare over ourselves. I want to encourage you to say this out loud: “There is no condemnation of ME who is in CHRIST JESUS. I am free and God has restored me back to Himself where there is only freedom and holiness.”
As you start this new year with a new hope, I want to encourage you to assess your heart and mind. Repent of anything that is holding you back from holiness as we follow Jesus and meditate on scripture (read the full chapter of Romans 8).
Thank you CBN SA partners for walking this journey with us. We are one community with one heart set apart for His glory. We can trust God to restore us and mold us this year. God bless you all.
