God wants to change your mind …

The brilliant Albert Einstein was noted to say, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

I think God agrees with Albert.

Our minds that have inclined themselves to desire and pursue sin rather than God and His standard of holiness must be changed if we’re to be children of God and citizens of the kingdom of God. The problem of sin can’t be fixed by continuing to use the same kind of thinking that entertained and preferred sin.

That’s why changing our minds is the primary transformation that begins to occur when we enter into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. The way we used to think about and value God, people, and things must change so that we think more and more like Christ.

Bubba Smith experienced a transformation in his thinking. Do you remember Bubba?

Smith retired from professional football several years ago and passed away in 2011. After he retired from playing football, Bubba started making beer commercials. He was the guy who tore the top off beer cans and engaged in the argument about whether the lite beer he was publicizing was less filling or tastes great.

In a magazine article about him, Bubba said he had never, ever drank beer. Drinking any kind of alcoholic beverage just wasn’t a part of his life. But he advertised it and felt good about his job. It was an easy job. It was an enjoyable job, and it paid a good salary.

But things changed one day when he went back to Michigan State, his alma mater, as the Grand Marshal of the Homecoming Parade. As he was riding in the limousine at the head of the parade, he heard the throngs of people on both sides of the parade route shouting.

What were they shouting?

“Hail to Michigan State?”

No!

One side was shouting, “Tastes great!” and the other side was shouting, “Less filling!”

Bubba suddenly realized that he and the beer commercials that he made had had a tremendous impact on the students at Michigan State. The message they had gotten was that “It is all right to drink light beer.”

Later, Bubba was in Ft. Lauderdale during Spring Break, where he observed the behavior of drunken college kids up and down the beaches shouting “Tastes great! Less filling!”

When it came time to renew his contract, he refused to sign because he said he didn’t want his life to count for something like that. He said there was a still, small voice in his mind that kept saying, “Stop, Bubba. Stop.”

When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and enter a covenant relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit begins to change our thinking. In order to free us of the thinking that originally broke us, there must be a renewing of our minds as new creations in Christ …

“But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God — truly righteous and holy,” Ephesians 4:20-24.

The pull and temptation of the world will be to continue to think like you always have. But God wants to change your thinking …

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” Romans 12:2.

What’s the purpose for this changing of our minds?

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had,” Philippians 2:5.

Are you cooperating with the Holy Spirit in the transformation of your thoughts and attitudes? Or do you grieve the Holy Spirit by continuing with the same kind of thinking that separated you from God?

Scotty