Read Romans 12:1-3 Thinking in New Ways

Thinking in new ways

I can be a very focused person.  I like to troubleshoot and problem solve.  Being able to see what needs to be done and knowing what steps to take to do it is part of what made me good at my job.  And, I enjoy it.  God has really wired me this way.

Now that I’m not working, I don’t really have a constructive outlet for this skillset.  As a result, I have found myself zeroing in on the things that need doing around me (like packing to move or finding a house) and pouring way too much brain power into doing them ‘right’.  I am driving myself and everyone else crazy.  If someone mentions they have difficulty, I immediately try to figure out what to do to fix it, like a dog with a bone.  Sometimes I forget to notice that they haven’t really asked for my help nor do they want it.  My exasperated husband finally said to me, “Get a job and leave me alone!”

Another disturbing by-product of this trait can be spending far too much time figuring out how to get what I want.  In my employment I became really good at ‘working my magic’ as people would say to make things happen.  Unfortunately, I can be brilliant at working outside of God’s will to make things go the way I think they should.  I may feel God’s leading in a particular way, let’s say with finding a home, and then I do whatever I can to work out the details.  I usually get well into the process before I realize I left God behind somewhere and I’m now using my own efforts to make it happen.  Often I come to a point of decision where I either have to sin (like tell a lie) or walk away, before I notice that I haven’t been following Jesus at all.  Then in shame and humiliation I come to Him to confess and have to ask Him to redeem the mess I’ve made.  This has caused me no end of trouble over the years.

I was walking and praying the other day, and something I was trying to work out kept intruding into my prayer.  There was no stillness or silence before the Lord anywhere in my life; it was like I was becoming consumed with trying to find the ‘perfect’ thing and then working out how to get it.  It seemed like everywhere I walked there was something to remind me and my thoughts would take off again.  I found it impossible to concentrate on the Lord.  I decided to turn onto a country lane near me, where there were no houses and nothing to distract.  It involved walking down and up the other side of a very large and fairly steep hill.  As I reached the bottom, I noticed a hole at the side of the gravel where the road had given way and collapsed down an embankment to a very deep ditch.  As I walked up the other hill I followed the trail of erosion to its beginning.  What I noticed gave me an object lesson from the Lord, which I would like to share with you.

The rut leading into the sinkhole was fairly deep but as I travelled uphill it was shallower and narrower.  Eventually I came to the place where the rut was barely discernable at all.  During a heavy rain some time ago, the water made a rivelet that ran down the hill almost at the edge of the gravel.  Next rain, and the next and the next, water ran along that same course over and over.  As it neared the bottom of the hill, other water spilled down from the raised bank to join and run along this rut making it deeper and wider.  When it finally pooled at the bottom of the hill the force and quantity of the rainwater began to spill over into the ditch.  Eventually the road collapsed and now every time it rains that water runs along those same lines and out to the depths of a murky, muddy swamp.

I realized God was showing me what was happening with my thoughts.  What had started off as something good and necessary became an obsession.  Desire to have what I thought God was going to give me began to consume me, as if it was my responsibility to make it work.  All my planning and plotting was turning this into an idol and taking my focus away from the Lord.  My thoughts were running along the same lines all the time, just like that water; gathering momentum until it was getting dangerously close to eroding my spiritual life and pitching me into a murky swamp of selfish desires.

As I turned my thoughts in repentance towards the Lord, I asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”  Romans 12:2 came to mind: “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Yes, of course.  It is only through this transformation that I will be able to rid myself of this obsession.  First of all, I needed to confess and give it to the Lord.  A sacrifice.  I gave up the right to choose, to decide.  That right belongs to the Lord.  Secondly, I had to take a strong stand against temptation.  Stop looking, feasting my eyes.  Thirdly, I had to grab hold of those errant thoughts and make them obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5).   I asked the Holy Spirit to do something specific to remind me when I’m wandering off into those thoughts while I’m walking and praying.  His answer? Mosquitos.  When I’m focused on the Lord they do not bother me at all.  But when I feel bugs on my skin or they start buzzing in my ear, I remember right away! LOL.  The final mind renewal comes from ‘filling the rut’ with something new.  As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, if you concentrate on getting rid of a sinful habit you’re still concentrating on it.  Rather than focusing on getting rid of the wrong thoughts, I need to replace them with Scripture.  God has been very gracious to send me what I need to read and meditate on so I can fully focus on Him and not on my selfish desires.

One last thing I’ll comment on. We often separate Romans 12:3 from the first two verses because of a subtitle in our Bible.  But the message of v3 is just as important in the scenario of tenacious sin I’m describing. Thinking too much of myself and my abilities is making the situation worse.  Recognizing my need for God to lead in every area of my life and relying on Him is just as important as the other truths in this passage.   And none of this is a ‘5 steps to freedom’ type of plan.  God has to be at the centre, not me.  I need to follow His lead, not try to put my effort into yet another project.

Do you have ‘rivers’ and ‘ruts’ in your own life? Take some time now and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you, and to show you where you need to think in new ways.  “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will”