Our Thought Life and a New Year

As we approach a new year, it is edifying to remember that "we are new creatures in Christ." A new year is not necessary for us as believers because all that a new year does is give us a fresh 365 days. There is no power or strength provided midnight December 31 to make us better persons.

But with Christ, "His mercies begin afresh each day." (Lamentations 3:23 (NLT). But the most important fact is that in Christ, "we are new creatures." We have been radically changed. Just as the human seed determines our DNA, so the spiritual seed of the Word of God in us activated and fertilized by the Holy Spirit becomes our new DNA.

I am not who I was and will never again be who I once was. I am a new person - I am "not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!!" II Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

The real person is who I am in Christ.

But the number one issue as believers we deal with is our thought life. The vile and disgusting things that can still inhabit our minds are repulsive. Then we say, "How can we be a new person with thoughts like this?"

Paul teaches us that these evil impulses arise not from our new hearts, but from the power of sin that lives in our flesh. Paul writes "so it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me." Romans 7:17 We are not to be defined by the weakness of the flesh but the strength of the spirit.

The issue for the mind is a re-training. It wants to do what is right, but it needs to learn discernment and discipline.

One of the favorite stories of 2008 that I learned was this:

Zig Zigler told the story of a guy who didn't touch a golf club for seven years, and lowered his score by nearly twenty strokes. What was his secret? He had been a prisoner of war who kept himself sane by playing an imaginary round of golf in his mind every day. Each day he played eighteen holes, imaging different weather conditions and different course designs. In meticulous detail he pictured himself hitting each shot flawlessly. After doing this for seven years, he finally got a chance to play a round of golf and lowered his score from the mid-nineties to the mid-seventies without ever practicing. (Toward a Deeper Walk by Marcus Warner, page 24).

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 8:5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Philippians 4:8 think about such things

Colossians 3:2 Set your minds

So as we begin a new year, may we renew our minds so we can continually experience more and more of the new life that is already in us. Sounds better than a new year resolution.