"Renovation"

"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".  Romans 12:2

A friend was sharing with me a sermon she had heard about renewing your mind.  It was so good I want to share it with you.  The verse above says to renew our minds.  We often think that means to just think about the Word of God.  It does but it means so much more than that.  The word for renew also means renovate. 

When something is being renovated, there is a process that takes place.  The old is being removed and the new is replacing it.  In renewing our minds, we have to renovate them-- tear out and replace.

If I were renovating my kitchen, I would not pull out all the cabinets and just leave it like that-- I have only started the renovation process.  I have to replace the old torn out cabinets with new ones, or my kitchen would remain empty and uncompleted.

Jesus talked about this principle-- when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man and walks around in the dry places then decides to go back to the house he came out of and finds it empty he goes and gets seven other spirits and inhabits it again. (Matthew 12)  How could he do that?  The house was empty.  Nothing had been put back in it.  The renovation was not complete.

You can't just get rid of the "bad" and not replace it with the "good".  You can't just "not think" worldly thoughts.  You have to replace them with "godly" thoughts.  It has to be "renovated"-- restored to a good condition; renewed; revived.  You do this first by surrendering your life to the Lord.  Then you have to "cast down imaginations" (your old way of thinking).  Next you have to replace those thoughts with God's Word.  The verse says to be transformed.  Isn't that what a renovation does?  I watch those home improvement shows on television and when they renovate a room or a house, the appearance is totally transformed-- it doesn't even look the same. 

We have to be renovated until we no longer look the same because we have been transformed.  This happens as we take out the old and replace it with the new.  In other words, we have to die to self and let the Lord live through us.

Have a great day.  Are you being renovated? 
 

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Coffee Break is a morning devotional written by Lorraine Ezell
and is sent to you free of charge for the asking from 
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