I finished writing my sermon this morning, and I am struck by this thought:
We often do what we do because we think the way we think.
Ephesians 4:22-24 is clear. To Put on involves the renewing of the spirit of your mind. Without the renewing of the mind, there is no putting on the new man. These things run together.
I take renewing of the mind to be something God the Spirit does in us through the Word he has inspired.
So the more I have the Word in my life, the more tender the Spirit has to heat up the crucible of change in my heart.
If I am to change, if I am to be rid of some sin, if I am to repent of my sins, if I am to struggle against it, instead of yielding to it, then I must have the Word of God in my life through prayerfully reading, listening, hearing, memorizing, devouring, even osmosis if I can.
So get the Bible into your life and maybe these links might be of help.
But more often than not, God brings situations into my life to expose this kind of yuck. And so now I have to do something else besides guard my heart.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
I am having to think about this idea this week. It is a scathing idea I think.
By that I mean, I feel so dirty, wicked and evil as I start to look into my heart. Because to guard it I believe I have to know what is either in it, or trying to get into it. And this week I am seeing some things I don’t really like
A love of preeminence
A longing to be known, without attempting to know
A love for leisure
A drive for the easy path
A longing for success that was easy and all mine
Yeah, pretty wicked. But this proverb is instructing us to guard it. I am supposed to make sure stuff like that doesn’t get into my heart. I am supposed to make sure that it stays full of Christ, and it doesn’t fill up with this kind of yuck.
But more often than not, God brings situations into my life to expose this kind of yuck. And so now I have to do something else besides guard my heart. Now I have to clean it. And that is not very nice at all.
As I have been attempting to study for the sermon this coming Sunday, I am struck by the fact that time and time again as God exposes my heart, the sermon passage is usually the passage I have to run to in order to correct me, change me, challenge me, heal me, and rescue me. So for now I will just leave this passage here for you. And maybe next week I will write a little more about it.
Ephesians 4:22-24 – 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Brady Owens 