4 Ways God Wants to Transform Your Mind for Deeper Joy
Wolf Creek is overflowing its banks, and this normally languorous stream is raging with terrifying ferocity. The ice that covered the creek all winter is breaking up and crashing downstream with thunderous intensity. It seems this quiet creek is resisting the transformation, and I get to thinking that letting God transform your mind often requires a similar kind of reshaping.
Letting God Transform Your Mind
Listening closely, I hear a guttural grinding noise coming from the depths of the creek.
I watch as a crack in the submerged ice layer widens, eventually allowing an enormous chunk to break free and cascade downstream.
One piece at a time, the ice is carried off by the current.
I think of the work God’s done in my life over the past two years.
Most of it has gone unseen on the surface.
Meanwhile, God has been doing deep, guttural work in the subterranean chasms of my soul.
He’s been transforming my identity in the deepest way, changing my desires, and revealing attitudes that don’t bring him glory. In short, God has been transforming my mind and leading me into deeper joy as a result.
How to Let God Transform Your Mind for Deeper Joy
God wants to transform your mind as well. In the process, he will show you the desires and attitudes that don’t bring him glory. As you relinquish these desires to him, you will find the joy you crave.
Let’s look at four ways God wants to transform our minds and lead us into deeper joy.
1. God wants to transform your mind by teaching you to lay down the desire to be right.
Most of us like to have the last word and to prove that we have the answers.
This desire manifests itself when I can’t let a conversation drop, when I feel obliged to defend my stance at all costs, or when every conversation with my child turns into a lecture.
God calls us to surrender the desire to be right. Instead, he wants to transform us into people who are quick to listen, care, love, and empathize.
As I set aside my desire to be right and learn to take myself less seriously, God is transforming my life and leading me into new depths of joy and peace.
God calls us to surrender the constant need to be right. Instead, he wants to transform us into people who simply want to listen, care, love, and empathize. #transformedbyGod #renewedmind Share on X2. Let God transform your mind for joy by shifting your focus onto how you can help others.
When I walk into a room looking for someone to make me feel loved and included, I miss God’s calling on my life.
God wants us to walk into rooms and look for needs to meet and people to love.
What do you think about when you walk into a room?
Do you wonder what people are thinking of you?
Or do you look for someone to love and encourage?
Start a habit of looking for someone to love and encourage, and God will transform your mind and fill you with joy. You will live out the reality that refreshing others leads to our own refreshment.
3. Uncover deeper joy by letting people see your authentic self.
It’s never been easy for me to let others into the vulnerable parts of my life.
If we’re going to go deep in relationships with others, we need to let them see who we really are. God wants to transform us into people who are authentic.
When we learn to live from our unchanging identities as God’s beloved children, we are free to live with nothing to prove. We are free to show up just as we are, let others see our true selves, and discover the joy of authentic living.
It’s only when we show the world our weaknesses that Christ’s strength can actually be made perfect in us.
4. We find joy when we give to others out of God’s love – not out of a need to be needed.
For many, feeling like others need us brings a sense of purpose and satisfaction.
We lose our joy when our kids move away, our ministries shift, and God changes our seasons.
We struggle to find joy on our sickbeds and in the valleys where we no longer feel needed.
Instead of finding our worth through what we can give to others, God wants us to be defined by the single fact that he loves us.
If my world is suddenly stripped away, is sitting alone in the light of God’s love enough for me?
Would it be enough for you?
God is calling each of his children to a deeper encounter with his love. He wants to break up the icy depths of our souls and seal our identities as children dearly loved by the Most High God.
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Today’s invitation is to pause and pray through these insights.
Pray about where God wants to change your heart and mind.
Let him speak truth into that place.
He is waiting.
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