Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 73

March 14;   Romans 12:2;   129/260(I);   ‘Renew Your Mind’

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How vitally import this verse is, in your spiritual growth as a Christian.  Twenty four hours a day, we are bombarded with ungodly, contradictory information, that whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, is designed by the devil to create unbelief in our minds concerning the Bible.  God’s Word is what teaches us the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us.  The information in the Bible, if known and believed, defeats the devil.  That is why the devil fights the Word of God so tenaciously.  When the Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, the temptations of the devil were countered by the Lord Jesus as He quoted the Word of God.  In the parable of the sower and the seed, in Mark 4, the seed is the Word of God and the types of soil is our spirit.  This parable clearly teaches that the hard soil, the rocky soil and the soil with weeds are all types of distractions used by the devil to take our attention off of the Word of God.  We are told in Romans 12:2 not to allow the world system to ‘squeeze us into its mold.’  In other words, Christians do not have to do, say, look and act just like those who do not know Jesus.  God’s Word transforms our mind.  The word is metamorphosis and is used to describe a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.  The renewing of our minds is progressive (‘good, acceptable, perfect will of God’).  If you are diligent to diligently read the Word it will become a delight to you, renewing your mind and setting you free from the deception this world is entrapped by.  God’s Word is truth.  Jesus said when we know the truth, known truth frees us.