There are specific things we must do if we expect to live in all that God has planned for us. None of God’s promises come to us automatically. But when
we become “doers of the Word” like James instructs us, we will begin to experience the transformation God has promised.
Notice what Romans 12:2 from the J.B. Phillips translation says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your
minds from within.”
We are the subject of this verse. That means we either let the world squeeze us into its mold, or we let God remold us. We are the deciding factor. No
one can mold the way we think unless we allow it. We have authority over our own thoughts, no one else does. Notice what Jesus said regarding what
we allow or forbid in our lives:
“Believe me, whatever you forbid upon earth will be what is forbidden in Heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be what is permitted in Heaven”
(Matthew 18:18 Phillips).
We can change our future by making the decision to forbid wrong thoughts to dominate our minds, once and for all. Then we can allow God to remold our thinking
as we meditate on His Word.
The kingdom of darkness will try to squeeze us into the world’s mold with thoughts that declare: “You’re a failure. You’ve always been a failure and you
always will be. You will never amount to anything. You will never change, so why bother.” If we listen to these thoughts we will begin to believe what
they say.
But whose report will we believe? Will we believe the report of Almighty God Who promises favor, health, protection, and wealth? Or will we believe the
report of the world and their forecast for disaster? It’s our decision. We cannot allow the destructive influence of the world to determine the way
we think, because the way we think controls the course of our lives. Instead, we can choose to believe what the Lord says and experience a new way
of living!
We don’t have to allow the opinions of others to stop us from having the career or education we desire. Instead, we can believe what the Apostle Paul said:
“…I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NLT), and “…we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians
2:16 NLT).
We don’t have to allow the destructive words of our parents to paralyze us the rest of our lives. The Bible says: “Even before He made the world, God loved
us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself
through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT).
The Apostle Paul gave us instructions on how to begin thinking differently:
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of
praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT).
Each morning when we wake up we can choose to think about what is right, honorable, true, pure and lovely. When we meditate on these things, we light our
path for a better life.
