Be Renewed - Ephesians 4:24-26

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…take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Ephesians 4:22-24

I Can Be Renewed in My Mind!

The Holy Spirit works on me, changing me to be like Jesus. He is making me new. Believers need reminders that this is happening. I do. And I love being reminded of it
 
I like how the Living Translation says to “throw off” my old sinful self. Throw. Be active in this. Work it out. Throw that junk off.

Why? It’s corrupted by lust. Evil desires. That’s flesh. Romans 8 talks about believers setting our minds on the things of the Spirit versus the things of the flesh. I must work at this.

And to make matters worse, the verse says I can deceive myself. I must throw off my sinful nature which is corrupted by lust and deception. This is serious, right? I must pay attention. If I don’t, I can find myself down a rabbit hole of self deception. I must cultivate the Holy Spirit’s conviction, not try to bury it.

Sounds like a bunch of bad news, but the gospel is good news. Jesus has beat Satan. Jesus invites me to join the victory He’s won.

The good news is this: because I belong to Jesus, I can be renewed in my mind. The Amplified version says to be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind. Continually, over and over again. I’m not going to get it all figured out in a weekend at camp.

Empowered

Still, I am a member of the winning team. I can stop acting like the the Devil got beat in everyone else’s life except for mine. Jesus won in history’s biggest ever weekend.

I get it. Even though he lost, the Devil is still a master of deception and I can fall right into that. My unrepentant greed, jealousy and impatience can open the door to those deceptions.

But my desire to be like Jesus turns me back around. He calls. I listen.

I can put on the new nature which is created “to be like God.” TO BE LIKE GOD. I really don’t have to walk down deception road anymore. I just don’t.

So I’ll put it all together here.

    Throw off my old nature with its lust and deception.
    Be continually renewed in the spirit of my mind.
    Put on my new mind, which is created according to God’s likeness.

I am a child of God. He has empowered me to throw off the old sinful nature. I get to renew my mind, continually, over and over. This all so I can take on the likeness God. I CAN be truly righteous and holy.

Lord, I believe your word. Teach me to throw off my sinful nature, to continually renew my mind, and put on my new remade nature. I want to be like You. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

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