Another New Year… What’s on Your Mind?
New Year’s resolutions have turned out to be a good way of annually reminding us all that, by our own strength and volition, we are powerless to make significant and long-lasting changes in ourselves and in the world around us. If, for no other reason other than to relearn that valuable truth every time the month of January rolls around, “New Year’s resolutions” can be a good thing. But let’s start with a much more complex issue – the state of our minds. In Romans 12:2, the Apostle Paul admonishes us with these important words:
“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 (KJV)”
The mind is a wonderful yet mysterious thing, the depth of which scientists have only begun to explore, and much less understand. Part of the problem, apart from the immense amount of information regarding the human brain, is that to study the mind, one must use “their mind.” It’s a little like reading a book…with a book.
It’s reported that the mind has the capacity to make 20 million billion calculations per second. Some have said that we only use 10 percent of our brain capacity. I recall some of my high-school teachers suggesting that I was using less. But seriously, the Scripture passage above instructs us that our behaviour can either mimic the “world” (apparently by default), or it can prove and know the perfect will of God, depending on our state of mind. Transformation is evidentially not something we can force by our determination, but rather the outcome of a supernatural renewal of our mind through the work of the Holy Spirit.
When you consider the wondrous complexity and power of God’s creation of the brain, one can only marvel at the process of the mind’s potential renewal as it brings forth the miraculous transformation of our whole being. Renewed minds will consider what is pure, lovely and excellent, guiding our behaviour so as to consider and then pursue God’s heart and mind, as well as His perfect will.
Last November 24th, I had the privilege of speaking at a church in Toronto. It happened to be a Grey Cup Sunday, the pinnacle of Canadian professional football (the CFL). While preparing for the morning, after a time of prayer and reflection, I happened to turn on the television news, only to be confronted with the juxtaposition of two significant, yet disparate stories. I recall using this illustration in my opening remarks to the congregation later that morning.
The lead story was the Grey Cup game and a great deal of attention was given to the event, as one might expect. A follow-up story, however, “hit home” in a most profound way as the TV journalist announced that, since the beginning of the uprisings in Syria, 11,000 children had been killed. Here was an opportunity to focus, with God’s eyes and attentiveness, on an issue that caused our Heavenly Father much grief. The statistic was merely offered in passing as the story was not highlighted.
That same week, we had received word through one of our operatives (who happened to be in Lebanon) that five children had been killed in a bomb blast at a Christian school. What made the story almost unbearable to hear was the information we received from our VOM contact on the brokenness of a 13-year-old Christian girl. This young teen had shown love and care to one of the slain girls who was having trouble fitting in. Shockingly, she received word of the tragedy – and the death of her young friend – through a social network site. We were privy to a photo of the young slain victim as she lay in her small coffin. There are no words.
We’ve since learned that the extremists who attacked the school did so deliberately with the intent of killing Christian children. This is unimaginable.
Such are the compelling stories of persecution throughout the many restrictive areas of the world where darkness rises up daily against the Christian church and Christ’s own beloved family – even the most vulnerable and innocent members such as those mentioned in this story. As our minds are renewed and we are transformed for service in His kingdom, may we experience a refocusing of our attention on the matters that break God’s heart.
Thank you for your faithfulness to the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs Canada. As we consider the process of “renewal,” I would also like to take this opportunity to pray God’s blessings and bountiful provisions upon you and yours. May He wonderfully sustain you for your journey throughout the year of 2014. We very much appreciate your prayers for our ministry team and, most of all, for those in peril whom we serve on your behalf and in the precious name of Jesus.
- Doug
