His Mind in Me
- Rebekah Daniel
- Nov 5, 2020
- 11 min read
Saturday Spotlight || guest writer Rebekah Daniel
Hey guys, it's Hannah!
Bekah and I spent four summers working together at one of my favorite places on earth, a camp in North Carolina. She’s one of the people I’ve learned the most from and laughed the most with. If I could only use one word to define her, I’d probably choose “wholehearted.” I wish you could meet her, but a guest post chock-full of rich truth will have to do.
We’re trying out something new with this post! If you want to use it as a Bible study over a couple of days, you can download it for later:
If you’d rather read it here, let me encourage you to have a Bible close by, because Bekah references a lot of beautiful Scripture. God’s Word has authority and changes people, not our words. I want you to see that the things Bekah says in this post are backed entirely by Scripture, not human reasoning. Fighting sin and loving God the way Bekah describes is God’s idea, not ours.
My prayer is that this post will give you hope to fight sin and motivation to fight it well.
But enough of me.
Here’s Bekah:
Part 1: Recognizing the Problem
It was my second summer counseling at The Wilds Christian Camp, and we had just finished playing a game of Cat in the Hat. I was carrying a stack of five-gallon buckets to the program shed as some of us cleaned up. Hot and sweaty, staring at the ground while I carried the buckets, I thought, Man, I hope everyone notices that I’m carrying these buckets. I’m one of the few that decided to walk away from the fun and serve. Ah, no! “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others," I chanted to myself.
Little did I know how much God was going to show me and change me that summer. In His perfect love, for the first time, God showed me how despicably proud I was. Pride infiltrated my every thought, and I saw its ugly tentacles wrapped around my every action.
In a meeting one morning, my lead counselor made the comment, “It is actually the kindest and most loving thing God can do for me when He shows me my sin.” I was struck with an endearing, sweet sorrow when I realized that love would inflict pain in order for there to be freedom. Conviction, the very thing that I opposed most, was the very means of love.
God extended conviction to me as an invitation to know my Savior in one of the most intimate ways available to me.
Learning to re·new
God’s plan for biblical change began to make sense to me that summer. It was a sweet reality that was progressively becoming more clear to me through His Word. I felt as if this dynamite of understanding imploding inside of me might very well explode out of me.
Each opportunity with a camper was like an electric exchange of truth when I got to explain Ephesians 4:22-24 to them alongside whatever they were struggling with. First, we would walk through what it meant to put off your sin: literally, to take it off, to be rid of it. Spiritually speaking, I agree with God that my sin is sin (and is as He sees it), confess it, and ask forgiveness for it.
But then, we get to renew. It was my favorite part of the passage to explain.
I would ask, “What is the root word in renew?”
New.
“What does new mean?” I’d ask.
The camper would often look at me and smile and say after a brief pause, “. . . new?”
“Yes, it’s brand new, it’s untainted, not messed up. What does the prefix re- mean at the beginning of that word? So think remodel, redo, repeat.”
They’d say, “To do it again. Do something again.”
“So, what does renew mean?”
To make new again.
“And what does this verse say we need to make new again?”
“Our minds.”
“Exactly, because our minds are wicked. Did anyone have to teach you how to do wrong? To take the biggest piece of pizza or the last cookie?”
They’d smile and say no.
I’d finish explaining that we were born wanting to please ourselves, but the whole reason we were created was to please, or glorify, God (1 Cor. 10:31). But there’s this gap between these two realities. How is that gap bridged?
God not only had a masterful plan in redemption, but also in restoring me to becoming more like Him, from my salvation until the moment I die (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 1:6, 2 Pt.1:1-11).
The first step in this change process is seeing what needs to be changed. We see where we do not measure up to the character of God, and we see it by beholding Him in His Word (2 Cor. 3:18, James 1:25). His Word is a spiritual mirror to see my sin, and if I am not looking into it intently, I will not see my sin, much less how to change from it. As with a physical mirror, I must get closer to see blemishes. This reality began to make sense to me.
Later that year, I remember walking back from class one day discouraged by my sin. I thought, “Lord, I feel like the longer I walk with you, the worse and more sinful I seem.” That is because I was regularly beholding Christ in His Word.
You Want More Than Acceptance
As I began to see my sin of pride, I realized my motivations in my actions of pride. In high school, I remember sitting in the same place for hours sometimes, replaying the events of the day in my mind. I would watch ‘reruns’ of that day’s highlights of ‘interactions with Rebekah’ until I would come to an agreeable conclusion of what all other participants of the day thought of me. If the conclusion was not agreeable and in my good favor, the highlights would replay over and over and over again until I encountered another instance of verifiable acceptance from a participant.
Once in college, I found myself overexplaining everything I said to make sure someone understood me. (Because how dare they walk away from a conversation with me and not have the same opinion I had of me? What if they retold what I said to them in any light except a glowing one of me?) These are the outward manifestations of my love of self.
But the question is, Why did I want acceptance from those people so badly? What did I want so badly that I was willing to sin to get acceptance from people? To sit and worry for hours, calculating and recalculating people’s body language, tone of voice, or what their lack of words meant.
I wanted acceptance. I wanted to be praised. I wanted attention, to be recognized as all that I imagined I was to the same glorious degree as my fantasies depicted me to be. I would never walk around saying, “I’m awesome. Direct all your attention to finding ways to praise me for how incredible I am.” But the sad reality is that I had found socially acceptable ways to seek that praise from others.
When I crave man’s approval, I have affections out of order and am not loving God like I should, but I also don’t love my neighbor as I should. The love of wanting someone’s approval is the greatest sleight of hand I could perform toward them—because I actually really love me most. They are then a means to what I love most: me. I’ve entangled them in my love affair with myself.
I need to confess my love of myself to God as well as my lack of biblical love of my neighbor.
The point is, all desire and want come from something I believe. My actions are produced from what I want, and what I want is sourced in what I believe about God, others, and myself. Behind every sinful action (worry) and every over-pursued desire (acceptance) is a sinful lie.
Lie: If I cannot have praise and acceptance from this person, I will not be okay. If I believe that, my satisfaction is in that person’s approval of me. I would never say that with my lips, but my actions and desires scream that I believe that is true. How awful. How untrue. And what a prison.
The cool thing is, I have the key to that prison because of my union with Christ. Christ satisfies-- not people’s favorable opinions of me. Remember what we said about renewing our minds? Well, this is the first big thing Christ showed me that I needed to make my mind new in: reprogramming it to believe rightly that He satisfies above all.
Part 2: Practical Renewal
Well that makes sense, but how do you “reprogram” your mind?
God renews my thinking and changes me to be more like Him through the power of His Word. I must put off the lies I am believing, confessing them and their accompanying actions to God. As I faithfully repent of my wrong thoughts and beliefs, exchanging them for what He says is true, He progressively changes my thinking over time.
I need specific Scripture that states what I need to believe about God. As God has continued to grow me through this struggle, promises I need to believe have been about where praise is due (all glory-receiving is His), where my identity actually is (in Him, not others), that He satisfies, and so forth.
My God deserves praise: Psalm 66, 104, 145
My God should be glorified: Isaiah 42:8, 1 Chron. 16:28-29
My identity is in Christ: Ephesians 1, 2 Pt. 1:1b, Col. 2:10
My God satisfies: Psalm 63, 34, 23
These passages declare what I struggle to believe about God. You may say, “I know God satisfies. I know I am His child. I know I should praise God. I know He deserves glory.” You can cognitively know facts, but your actions declare what you really believe.
If I am actively choosing to believe God satisfies, I will not chase praise from others. I will not be utterly discouraged when someone does not recognize my work before the next person’s. I will not be disappointed when no one takes time to express appreciation to me if I realize all glory is God’s, not mine.
If I truly believe these things, I will not act in ways that rob God of what He says He is and what He says is true. Renewing my mind with scripture is an active pursuit of exchanging wrong beliefs for right beliefs.
But you probably know how hard it is to remember truth when your Bible is not in front of you. What do you do then?
I also asked this question. While I renew my mind in spending time in God’s Word every day, I am still going to wrestle my flesh throughout the whole day. I need to be armed with Scripture that affirms what I struggle to believe (2 Cor. 10:4-5, Phil, 2:5).
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh
but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised
against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
(2 Cor. 10:4-5)
I can tell myself that God is good all day long, and that would be true, but it is Scripture that has renewing power (Heb. 4:12, Is. 55:11, Ps. 119:11). The goal in reviewing promises (thinking Bible) each day is meditation on the right thoughts; most of us are good at this, we just meditate on the wrong things. Before long, you have memorized what you are meditating on and it is more accessible in your fight to think right.
Scripture is my healing balm and my greatest weapon. It cuts and cradles my heart simultaneously. The same means that heals me of me also aids me in fighting me. God’s Word inflicts the wound and heals it at the same time, like a surgeon’s instrument: first the tool is used in a manner which brings pain (Scripture revealing sin, or mutilating and demolishing what is not good), but it is doing the work through which sweet healing comes. God’s Word enables and sustains the change process. That is the reality of Scripture’s work and power. Incredible.
As I reviewed truth each day that affirmed what I struggle to believe, I found that God began to change me! I found this principle true in suffering and all daily life: His Words are food for my soul (Psalm 119: loving God’s law).
How long does the process of change take?
Sometimes it feels like nothing is changing, and I am exhausted from the war of fighting the army for my glory against God's.
If you feel as though nothing is changing, take heart:
Each time you say no to your desires and yes to His way, God supernaturally enabled you.
Each time, He lavished your effort in His grace.
As I choose to faithfully and aggressively address sin issues God's way (put off, renew, and put on) each time I'm tempted, little by little He is changing me to not want my way as much and to want His way more.
Sanctification is mostly about yielding to His prompting through His grace (2 Peter 1:3-4). He is committed to change in me; He will not stop short of anything but a mirror of His Son (Philippians 1:6).
A Quick Misconception to Address:
I do not choose to think Bible to get what I want or even to be relieved of my own misery; I choose to think Bible because it is obedience to God to live a life that pleases Him, not me. It brings Him glory, and this is why I was created (1 Cor. 10:31). There is often the gift of peace in obedience to God (Is. 26:3), but this is not the first reason to think Bible.
Another thing I have come to realize is that this is not a militant chant of Scripture to myself. This is meditation--a prayerful meditation. I pray these truths back to God. It is not a mathematical formula I follow to get the desired results I want in the time I want it. As strange as it may sound, I steward my sanctification. I do not control it. Obedience is stewardship. I faithfully obey God in repentance and right believing about life in Him. He blesses this and does what He has promised on His timetable (Phil.1:6, Rom. 15:13).
What about when I don’t want to renew my mind because I still want my sin?
One of the biggest realities in thinking Bible is me not wanting to. It’s ugly to acknowledge. I return to the vomit of my sin struggles, as a dog does. This is a grotesque reality of my sinful condition.
I don’t want to give up my grip of control. I don’t even want freedom. I am comfortable in my sin.
Christ paid for the exchange of beliefs in my thinking.
But I am not a slave to sin (Rom. 6). Christ paid for the exchange of beliefs in my thinking. When I want sin, I live as a searching beggar when I have the key to rest: I have wealth in Him that paid for every one of those belief exchanges.
In these moments, my choice of response is the same as when my heart (desire to renew my mind) is in it: repent, believe, and act. Oftentimes, with my introspective tendencies, I can think too hard about this process. A key for me is to simply repent, believe and sometimes find someone to serve to get my eyes off myself.
I can rejoice in the love my Savior is extending to me when I see sin. There is sorrow, yes, but it is a hopeful sorrow. My God is more committed to my change for His glory than I can ever possess an understanding of. I can trust that fighting my sin is not a mystery or code to crack. In faithful, obedient stewardship I am introduced to the sweet joy of my dire dependence in seeking Him to change me. What a gift.
His Word is enough, and I am begging Him to teach me to love me less so I can love Him more and more.
Philippians 3:8 says, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Even if that is through fighting my sin, I want to know Him more.
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