New Day, New Year, and New Beginnings - 31 Days of Fresh StartsSample

Renewing Our Minds...

...and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:23-24

Once again, what we think about, dwell upon, and obsess about in our minds has tremendous sway over the way we live, interact with others, and our relationship with Lord Jesus. Our thoughts can blockade the new things God wants to do in and through us.

Our thoughts are the realm of the soul. The New Testament Greek word we translate as soul—Psyche or Psuche—is where we derive our English words for psychology and psychiatry. Our soul is the seat of our thoughts, emotions, ability to choose, intellect, and our one-of-a-kind personality.

Our opening verses are a reiteration of Paul’s words in Colossians we’ve read before on Day 10, but let’s look at them from a different angle.

God has created our brains with the ability to be changed and renewed. This extraordinary ability is called neural plasticity. As the most complex structure in the universe, our brains are comprised of 100 billion neurons with approximately 10,000 synapses that relate to other neurons. These synapses create patterns or familiar roadways, ruts, or grooves within our brains as we continue a particular line of thinking.[i]

Nevertheless, with intentionality and the Holy Spirit’s power, we can refresh and renew our brains and, subsequently, our thought lives as we learn to choose to make new thought patterns. Our actual gray matter—matters. God made it to be continually renewed.

Desiring a new path in your life? Come at it with both Holy Spirit revelation and power and the knowledge that when you interrupt unhealthy thinking patterns, intentional new ones can form. It can make all the difference in the world when stepping into a new area of living.

[i] Frank Amthor, Neuroscience for Dummies (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/neuroscience-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html), John Wiley & Sons, Inc.