Just Breathe: Hope And Help For Those Drowning In The Pain Of AddictionSample

Think a Whole New Way Part 1

There was a song about fifteen years ago by the pop/rock group Sister Hazel, where the lyrics rang out: “If you want to be somebody else; If you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself; ... Change your mind.”  You know what? They were right. I’m learning that the real challenge to you and me being all that God wants us to be lies between our ears. 

Jesus told us that we have an enemy and even called him “the father of lies,” and that enemy wants to keep us locked up with guilt, shame, and worthlessness. He loves to see us wrestle with a tortured soul; the last thing he wants for you and me is freedom. So he targets the mind, and he knows that if he can get us to believe his lies, instead of God’s truth, he can keep us stuck. 

If you can influence thinking, you can influence behavior. Because the way we behave is always a reflection of the way we think. 

Romans 12:2 was a game-changer for me. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (NLT). It took me a couple times of reading this to understand, but it’s really important to see that there are actually two parts to this process of living a new way: God’s part and our part. 

God’s part is the transformation. Paul is saying that you have to let a power that is greater than you go to work on you because only he has the power to change you and me from the inside out. A friend told me that the Greek word used for “transform” in that Scripture is metamorpho. That word sound familiar? It’s where the word metamorphosis comes from, and I like that picture because a caterpillar can’t change himself into a butterfly on his own strength and power. Its job is to surrender to the process of change. That’s the way it is with us too. Transformation is God’s part.