Learn to recognise destructive thoughts, replace lies with God’s truth, and set your mind on Christ.

Your Thoughts Control Your Life

It’s crucial that we take control of our thoughts and start living the life we were meant to live. I’m not certain, but I think the mortality rate is still up near 100%, so the quicker we can learn some crucial life lessons, the better off the remaining period of our lives will be. While you may have already learned your own life lessons, I’d ask that you pay particular attention to mine. I’m not backward in coming forward to say I’ve stuffed up and that listening to me, could save you a truckload of pain and heartache. I’ve struggled with controlling my thoughts over many years and have found that there are some simple steps to start to renew your mins. 

Here are my 6 Steps to Renew Your Mind.

6 Steps to Renew Your Mind.

Step No. 1

Understand What Thoughts Are

There has been enormous study into how the human mind works. I won’t atempt to explain the science here. For me, the more important question is what we do with the thoughts that enter our minds. The Bible gives us a much biger framework for understanding our thought life.

Not every thought that enters your mid should be accepted as truth. Some thoughts arise from our sinful nature. Some come from past wounds and experiences and some are shaped by the world around us, and some, quite obviously, may come frm spiritual opposition. 

Your mind is constantly being influenced. Your responsibility is to become discerning about what you allow to remain. This is why Paul says: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5). That changes the way I think about my thoughts.

A thought can enter my mind without having permission to stay there. A thought can feel real without being true. A thought can be strong without having authority.

The question becomes, “What am I going to do with this thought?”

Step No. 2.

Be Careful How You Think

As a general principle, we need to pay attention to our thought life. Proverbs 4:23 says: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Our thoughts matter because they influence what we do.

A thought can become an agreement.

Agreement can become an action.

Repeated actions can become habits.

Habits shape character.

Character influences the direction of our lives.

I’ve seen this pattern in my own life. A thought might begin with something as simple as:

• ‘I’ll never change’
• ‘I’ve failed again’
• ‘God must be disappointed with me’
• ‘I can’t overcome this’ and so an and so on.

The danger comes when I start agreeing with those thoughts. The thought itself may have appeared without my permission. What happens next is important.

Do I examine it?

Do I reject it?

Do I agree with it?

Do I allow it to take me further down the same path?

Your mind needs guarding because what you continually agree with will begin to shape you. Paul says: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2.  That is very different from simply telling myself to “think positive.”

I’m learning to ask whether my thinking is consistent with God’s truth.

Step. No. 3

Don’t Give Your Thoughts Permission

I’ve been there. A thought starts small. You think about it for a while. Then you think about it again. Before long, you’ve gone much further than you intended. The thought has gained momentum. I’ve had to wrestle with thoughts about:

• What people think about me,
• My failures,
• My relationships,
• My inadequacies of being an exemplary father, husband, brother, and son
• The failure I’ve been as a friend,
• How my relationship with God is less than adequate,
• The lack of purpose in my life,

The problem is not that a thought appeared, the problem comes when I give that thought permission to
remain. Your thought life can become a place of agreement.

The chapter of my life where I struggled most with my thinking taught me that thoughts left unchecked can become established patterns. Over time, those patterns can feel normal even when they are
completely inconsistent with God’s Word. That is what makes some thought patterns so difficult to
break. They have been reinforced over time.

Paul tells us to take every thought captive to obey Christ. That means I need to become aware of what is happening in my mind and deal with it. I need to stop allowing every thought to have a seat at the
table.

Step. No. 4

Question ‘Is It True?

Thoughts are thoughts. They are often baseless and nonsensical. They are random and often-times critical, and for the most part, have nothing to do with reality. Remember, thoughts don’t necessarily reflect reality, in fact, in most cases, they are the total opposite! Our mind is a battlefield and we need to take control of it. We need to make a conscious effort to stay on top of our thought patterns, as they can literally take a hold of us and drive us to places we never thought we’d go. Questioning ‘Is this thought true?’ More importantly, is it true according to God’s Word? This is extremely powerful and is crucial in the 6 steps to renew your mind. Be aware of when your thoughts go off on tangents. Be conscious of when they are negative, as negative thoughts will quickly lead you down a destructive path if you aren’t actively and purposefully on top of them. 

A thought might say: “I’m a failure.” What does God say?

A thought might say: “God is distant from me.” What does Scripture say?

A thought might say: “I will never change.” What does the gospel say about the work God is doing in me?

This is where we need to become good at recognising lies. Again, Paul says: “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.” 

The test is not whether a thought feels convincing, the test is whether it agrees with truth.

I’ve found it helpful to follow a thought down the path it wants to take me. What comes next if I follow this thought? Where does it lead? Does it lead me toward Christ, truth, obedience and trust in God? Or does it lead me toward fear, condemnation, pride, bitterness, temptation, hopelessness or unbelief? If a thought takes me away from God’s truth, I need to challenge it. I don’t need to accept it simply because it appeared in my mind.

Step. No. 5

Replace the Lie With God’s Truth

Recognising a thought is only the beginning. Once we identify a thought that does not align with God’s Word, we need to replace it with truth. We are not simply trying to suppress the thought. We are replacing what is false with what is true.

Paul tells us to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). God’s Word becomes the reference point against which we test our thinking. When a thought says, “I’ll never change,” we need to ask what God says about who we are and what He is doing in us. When a thought says, “God is distant from me,” we return to what Scripture tells us about His presence and character.

This is why spending time in Scripture matters so much. We cannot replace lies with truth if we do not know the truth. The more familiar we become with God’s Word, the more readily we can recognise thoughts that contradict it.

Jesus showed us this in the wilderness. When Satan tempted Him, Jesus responded with Scripture. He answered deception with the truth of God’s Word.

The same principle applies to us. When fear, condemnation, temptation or confusion enters our thinking, we can bring that thought under the authority of Christ and replace it with God’s truth. Over time, this does more than deal with individual thoughts. It begins to reshape the patterns of thinking that sit underneath them.

That is part of what it means to renew our minds.

Step. No. 6

Set Your Mind on Christ

Renewing our minds is an ongoing process. We are constantly exposed to influences that can shape the way we think, so we need to continually set our minds on the things of God.

Paul says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).

This is where dependence on the Holy Spirit becomes so important. We cannot renew our minds through willpower alone. We have a part to play. We need to recognise wrong thinking, confront it with truth, spend time in Scripture, pray, and bring our thoughts under Christ’s authority. Yet the transformation itself is the work of God within us.

I’ve experienced this in my own life. There were thought patterns I had accepted for years without questioning them. The Holy Spirit began exposing them through prayer and God’s Word. I had to confront them and keep returning to God’s truth.

Some patterns take time to change. They are weakened as we repeatedly replace them with truth and depend on the Holy Spirit to transform us. We cannot transform ourselves, yet we cannot expect transformation without our willing participation.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to become better at managing our thoughts. The goal is to become more like Christ. Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Through the Holy Spirit, God is progressively shaping our thinking, responses, decisions and character so that they increasingly reflect Jesus.

That is what makes Christian mind renewal different from self-help. We are not simply trying to become better versions of ourselves. We are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Bringing It All Together

Paul