Changing Clothes

Ephesians 4:22-24

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

We’ve talked a lot in our devotionals so far this year about being made new. It’s a wonderful thing that God forgives our sin in such a way that they are no longer remembered. We are restored in our spirits to the way God created us, without sin, but our souls (mind, will, and emotions) still need some work. How can we make that work happen? How do we do the work of making our mind, will, and emotions new as well? This verse has the answer. We need to be made new in the attitudes of our mind.

Joyce Meyer has a popular book titled The Battlefield of the Mind. In it, she explores the various ways that Satan uses our mind as his battleground. The battle is fought–and won or lost–in the realm of our thoughts. What we think, what we allow our minds to dwell on, becomes what we believe. What we believe heavily influences what we do. So our thoughts and attitudes play an integral role in our behavior.

We all have behaviors that we want to change. That’s why we take this time of year to make New Year’s Resolutions. We are committing and resolving to change our behaviors from something we dislike to something we like. Perhaps we want to go from unhealthy to physically healthy, so we resolve to lose weight or to exercise each day. Perhaps we want more money in our bank account, so we resolve to spend less money and instead put that money into savings. Our resolutions are usually focused on our behaviors. But how often do we resolve to change our thinking?

You can’t give up a bad habit unless you find a new one to put in its place. Today’s verse tells us that when we put off our old self, we’re to replace it with our new self. If we want to successfully change our life to reflect Christ, we have to start with renewing our mind. The Bible tells us that we renew our mind through meditating on the word of God. What does meditating look like to a Christian? It looks like deep pondering and repeated thinking. If you’ve ever worried about something, you know what that feels like. The worry keeps coming back to mind and you dwell on it and turn it over and over again, examining it from every angle, in an attempt to fix the problem and remove the anxiety. Well, that’s meditating turned upside down.

Instead of dwelling on our anxiety, we should be dwelling on God’s Word. We need to ponder these verses. Memorize them. Study them from every angle. As we begin to ingest the Word of God, it begins to change our thinking. It begins to show us truth in a way we haven’t seen it before. That change in thinking changes what we believe about ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. As our beliefs and thoughts change, our behavior soon follows. We begin to be doers of the Word, not hearers only. We start to act on what we think and believe. We become more and more like Christ.

Father, I thank you that at the moment of my salvation, you gave me a new spirit, a spirit that was created to be like you–righteous and holy. I thank you that because of this change within my spirit, I am able to put off the old way I used to do things, a way corrupted by sin, and I am able to put on a new way of doing things–your way. Help me to meditate on your Word instead of worrying about things. Renew my mind as I study and focus on your Word. Change me from the inside out, so that I can be a better reflection of who you are to the world around me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.