Transform Your Thinking

Transform Your Thinking, Transform Your Life
by Bill Winston

The world is always telling us that we should be living the high life. Their idea of the high life is having a beer in our hand, sitting in a tropical paradise, and being surrounded by beautiful, wealthy people. Commercials and billboards picture \”the high life\” as idyllic landscapes and luxurious lifestyles. But what really is the high life?

Deep down inside, every human being knows what the high life is. The high life is being both happy and successful inside and out. It is something we all long for, but most of us believe it is impossible to achieve. The question is, why would God put that desire in us and then give us no way to realize it? He wouldn\’t!

The Bible tells us that we can live the high life through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way to the high life, so why isn\’t every Christian living it? The Bible tells us why. It says that we must first change the way we think. Proverbs 23:7 says that we are what we think. That would mean that if we are poor, miserable, lonely, scared, sick, or frustrated and in a rage all the time—it is because of what we are thinking.

I heard it said once that we will always move in the direction of our most dominant thoughts. That is a profound truth! If we see ourselves working hard but never getting ahead, then we will probably continue to work hard and never get anywhere. We can be born-again and filled with God\’s Spirit, but if we are constantly thinking of ourselves in terms of poverty and unhappiness, that is what we are going to experience in life.

There is good reason the Holy Spirit used the apostle Paul to literally beg Christians to attend to their minds.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(Rom. 12:1-2)
This says that when our minds are consumed with the Word of God, we will be transformed and move in the right direction. We will \”prove\” to the world around us what is the will of God, and His will is always truly good, fully acceptable, and perfect. The Bible makes it clear that God\’s will is for us to succeed and live in joy unspeakable and full of glory!

All this sounds simple enough. Just renew our minds or change the way we think by reading and studying the Word of God. Then all of us blood-bought, Spirit-filled believers should do just fine.

However, I have noticed that many of us are not doing just fine. When the issues of politics or race or doctrine come up in your local church, when there is a family dispute over whose responsibility it is to feed the dog and take out the trash, when your boss calls you in to tell you that you are being laid off, or when your doctor tells you that you have a terrible disease, that is when you discover just how renewed your mind is! Do you act like the world or do you act like Jesus?

Personally, I have never been more built up and charged up since I began studying how to renew my mind. I have discovered the vital importance of keeping it renewed. Understanding and going through this process has removed so many barriers and limitations I had placed on God\’s ability to move in my life—ways of seeing myself, my family, my church, and my God that had kept me from receiving everything Jesus died to give me. When I got serious about renewing my mind, I discovered the key to living the high life!

As you read and meditate the Word of God, as you take His Word to heart and allow it to change your perception of God, yourself, your life, and the world around you, you will be miraculously transformed. I can say this with full confidence not only because it is happening to me, but more important, because it is what God promised.

Jesus died to give you abundant life, the high life. The only thing that stands between you and living the high life is what is going on between your ears! Make the commitment to renew your mind, and let the revolutionary transformation of your life begin right now.