The Bible tells us what kinds of things we should keep our minds thinking about. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things,” Philippians 4:8. Good stuff! Notice there isn’t anything negative on the list. We know that how we think very much affects how we act. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” What you think about and how you see yourself is what will be manifested in your life. That’s why 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to take every thought captive to obey Christ. This is also why its so important to understand that Jesus has removed every sin from you. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are righteous! Christ died once for all sin, so our sins will never be held against us. We are beyond reproach and free from condemnation. So dwelling on our past sins is pointless, and being sin-conscious only causes us to sin more by focusing our attention on it. The enemy will try hard to get us to feel ashamed and guilty for our sins, but we need to reject those thoughts. They are not from God, and they don’t reflect our true identity. We are righteous, and as we dwell on that, righteousness will be manifested in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us of this. He tells us that we are righteous, and that we have the mind of Christ. If we spend our time thinking about Jesus and what He has done for us, we renew our minds. We get our thoughts to line up with His thoughts, and in the process our actions become more like His actions. Refusing to be sin-conscious and instead being Jesus-conscious is living in God’s grace! It doesn’t mean that we are free to go on sinning, of course. Its not a license to sin. Its freedom FROM sin. The more we understand grace and renew our minds, the less we should want to sin. It becomes more and more abnormal to choose to sin, and we naturally sin less. Meditate on who Jesus is and what He has done for you. Focus on who He has made you to be. When we think about these things, we begin to understand who we really are. When we set our minds on the things of Heaven, we find freedom and victory.
