Renewing your mind

Romans 12:2 speaks about not conforming to the patterns of the world but instead being transformed by the renewal of our mind. On this episode we will take some time to unpack the scripture and get practical tips to apply to assist us in renewing our mind. 

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Happy Monday, everyone. Happy new week. Happy new day. Welcome to the I'm Saved Now What Podcast. I am Jaavonne Taylor. If this is your first time, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm really happy to have you here, and I'm happy that the Holy Spirit led you here. Welcome back to all members of the community. I'm really, really, really happy to have you here this week. So some of you may or may not have realized actually that I didn't drop a new podcast episode last week. And the reason was simple: I needed rest. And God impressed upon me to take a step back, to pause for a while, to breathe, to get my thoughts together, to get some rest and then return. I struggled with it, but the truth was that I actually needed to take the break. Making this podcast when I am the creator, the editor, the producer, right? When I wear all the hats here, plus showing up in my everyday life is no small feat. And God needed me to take my foot off the gas for a bit. And so I did. If I'm being honest, I did not rest as much as I would have liked to. But the pause gave me some time to refocus, to declutter my mind, and to just really think about all that God has been doing over these past few weeks and what the Lord has been doing in my life. And it's something that was really, really, really important. And it's really good because guess what? Today's episode, we are going to be focusing on and talking about renewing your mind. The popular scripture in Romans 12, 2 is what we are going to focus on today. I think many of us are able to recite by heart the scripture, but are we actually able to say what this scripture means? And if we do know what it means, are we actually applying this scripture to our daily lives? The New International version says, Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is His good, pleasing, and perfect. So that's the version I think that's most popular. But I also looked at another version because I like to do that when I when I study. I like to look at the different versions to see if I can better understand what the scripture is saying. The NLT says it like this don't copy the behaviors 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. Now, this is really good because when you read that scripture, when you look at the scripture, it's really showing you how important your mind is in this walk, in this daily walk that we live in Jesus, like in this journey with Jesus. I think Romans 12: 2 emphasizes the importance of your mind. Right? And for me, when I look at it, it shows that once your mind is renewed, there is a transformation in you that will take place. I remember the first time this scripture started to make an I started to hear it all over the place, even in secular spaces. I was just hearing renew your mind, renew your mind, renew your mind, and I'm like, what does mean? Like I get it, but I don't get it. Like I get what you're saying, but I don't get how I am supposed to renew my mind. My mind is not something I can touch. So, how does one renew their mind? And when I asked these questions, I was really cautious because I know the world has methods for you to renew your mind, but I didn't want to utilize the world's methods of renewing my mind. I wanted to know how God wanted me to renew my mind because I'm very cautious with what is there. There's so much in the marketplace right now, there's so much in the world right now, and you have to be very discerning and you have to use wisdom. And for me, as like God, this is in your word. Your scripture is telling me that I need to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. So, how do I renew my mind? And God being such an incredible father, such a good and amazing God, God decided that hey, I'ma answer your question. So I believe I asked the question in or around February 2025. That's last year, right? And I asked it on Twitter. I mean, we call it again, sorry. You guys call it X. Forgive me, guys. I've been on this, I've been on that platform since 2008. So it's it's Twitter to me, even though the name has been changed officially. But I posted that, I tweeted that that you know, what does it mean to renew your mind? And I kid you not, within about two weeks, the Lord allowed one of my pastors to unpack it. He was doing a presentation about Romans 12:2, and he gave us tips on how to renew our minds. So, today's episode, that's what I'm gonna talk about. I'm going to talk about how we renew our minds, how we as believers renew our minds. What are some of the tools, the strategies, the techniques, and the tips we can use to renew our minds so we can be transformed. Before I jump into the the tools and the techniques, though, I think it's critical that we just look at some of the keywords. There are five keywords that I I looked at and I saw that jumped out at me when I read the scripture. And I looked at conformed pattern, transform, renewing, and mind. What I would recommend is that you guys really go and do some deep dive in as to what these words mean. But I think it's good. Let me just show you what what I found, the definition that I found. So to conform is to comply with the rules, standards, methods, or behaviors. And the Greek word for conform is suskemetsio. I really don't think I pronounced that thing properly. Forgive me. And it means to take on the outward appearance, shape, or pattern of something else. So you can see why this is important. So God says, do not conform. So God is saying do not take on the outward appearance, shape, or pattern of something else. And then it goes further, right? So it's saying do not take on the pattern. Now, what does pattern mean? A pattern is a consistent characteristic or way in which groups or individuals operate, think, behave, or live. The Greek word for pattern is protipo, and the direct translation for protipo is standard model prototype or archetype. It represents the model for which originals are formed. So the world has a particular model, a particular standard, a particular characteristic or way in which it operates. And the Lord is saying, do not take on the outward appearance, shape, or or or characteristic, or the standard of the world, right? To be transformed is to completely change form or appearance or character. The Greek word for transform is metamorpho, and I found this to be so amazing because the word there is an English word called metamorphosis, and I learned this word some time ago when I did science in school. So this was many years ago. But what I always recall when I hear the word metamorphosis, what I remember is the life cycle of a butterfly and how a butterfly starts out as a caterpillar. And I think when when I saw that the Greek word for transform was metamorpho, it like it brought to life for me, it just conveyed what the Lord was saying in this scripture. It's like you're being transformed, but the transformation that is happening because of the renewal of your mind is so powerful, right? So if you know the life cycle of a butterfly, so it starts as a caterpillar, then it goes into this protective state, and it it becomes it goes into a cocoon or a crystalis, and inside it's locked away, it's tucked away. If you were a curious kid like I was when I was growing up, I used to see them and I used to go and look at the wall and I would peer and I would look at them and see it, and you wouldn't see much, depending. Sometimes you can see ones with the thin outer layer, sometimes they're covered. But when you see the ones with the thin outer layer, you know, when you're looking inside of it, you're seeing the thing, and it's like, what is this? Why does it look like this? This thing looks weird. But the reality is that it's it's tucked away in this protective casing, it's tucked away in this protective shell, and then after a while, after a time, it becomes a brand new thing, right? Metamorphosis, it becomes a brand new thing, and the English definition for metamorphosis is a profound visible change that proceeds from an inward reality, right? So there's a profound invisible change, right? It's a profound invisible change. So God is saying that there's going to be a profound change that is going to happen, and to renew something is to restore something to a fresh and vigorous state. A definition, one of the definitions I found that I really love for renewal, it says a deep spiritual renovation of the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit, aligning a person's thoughts, behaviors, and desires with God. Achinos is the Greek word for renewal, and it means a complete renovation in a qualitatively new state. So these are the key words that I want you to consider when we are going through today's episode, and they are pattern, conform, transform, and renew. And I know I just gave you a lot of definitions, and I really hope you're still here because there is a reason for it. I I genuinely believe that to understand something fully, we have to go to the root and to begin to inspect and investigate what that thing is. How can we truly appreciate the scripture without first understanding the meaning of the keywords? Like we need to unlock exactly what it is that God is saying and what does He mean. So for me, having read the scripture, my understanding of Romans 12 2 is this do not operate in accordance with the current behaviors and trends of the world, but instead be completely changed by the deep spiritual renovation of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, allowing God to reveal to you his will, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Now, I use the word trends deliberately, and the reason I use the word trends here is because we live in a social media rich era. We live in a world where our lives, if we're not careful, can be run by trends. Today, you're supposed to be wearing red, tomorrow it's blue, today long hair, don't care. Next, you know, next week we're shaving off headsides. Like we live in that kind of world. Do not conform to the patterns of this world. He's saying, do not operate in accordance with the current behaviors and trends of this world. But what are some of the patterns of the world? What are some of the world's patterns? What are some of the standards of the world right now? What are some of the standards of the world that you are currently living in? What are the standards of the workplace that you're working in? What are the standards of your family? What are the standards of the country that you live in? What are the standards? What are the patterns? What are the things that we do as a way of life? What is the culture in that space? You see, sometimes we get lost in trying to decipher what the patterns of the world are because they get lost in culture, they get lost in culture, and because the culture is a way of our life, it's so hard for us sometimes to be able to recognize that it may be cultural and it may be accepted by the world, but it does not align with the word. It is contrary to the word of God. So not because my mommy has done it and my auntie has done it and my grandma has done it means that the means that the Bible says that this is how it works, right? But sometimes we get lost. So what are some of the world's patterns? Now I could go in any direction, but I just decided to pick out a few just because I'm having this conversation. And one of the things I looked at was that there seems to be an acceptance of dishonoring of parents. When you look at TV shows, when you look at the Instagram videos, TikTok videos, there seem to be for me anyway, there's this this this this this what would you call it now? There's just this outpouring of persons posting content with children being rude and they're laughing about it. And I'm like, this is not funny. Like, where you know, where where are the limitations? Why are you not parenting these children? Why is it that these children are dishonoring you? When I see the world now where there's this standard of dishonor and this chaotic kind of thing, I am concerned. Anyways, there's another one. Um, there's a normalization of sex before marriage, there's a normalization of corruption, we see selfishness, wickedness, sexual immorality. We have a culture of gossip and deception being perpetuated through social media, and the list goes on and on and on and on. So these are just a few of the things that we are seeing in the world. So a few of the patterns, rather, that I am seeing in the world. And the Lord is saying to us as believers, do not conform to these behaviors, do not operate in the way the world operates. So now that we know what the scripture means, how do we actually renew our minds? What do we do? Because we're seeing how the world operates. How do we start to operate like the Lord? Now, first things first, you need to know how the Lord operates, and you can't know how the Lord operates if you don't read your word. The word of God, it's the tool, it tells us exactly how the Lord operates, it tells us it's his character, it shows us how he expects us to live. The word, we have to read the word, read the word, meditate on the word, digest the word. We have to read the word, we have to appreciate the word. Without that, we won't know how it is that God wants us to operate. The word, the word, we can't get out of that. The word is important in this stage in your life. The word is important in every stage of your life. The word, the living, breathing word of God. That Bible that you have is not just a book, it is God's voice, it is God's character, it is God's revelation, it holds the answers right there. Every day you get up and you read a verse, every day you get up and you recite a verse, every day you get up and you meditate on a scripture. There is something that is happening inside of you that even though you can't see it, it is configuring the way you think, the way you operate, and it is exposing you to new things and new ideas and new concepts, and it is transforming your life, the word of God, and you see, you have to read the word because it's one thing to know the pattern of the world because you live in it, you live in the world, so you know the pattern of the world, but how are you going to know the pattern of the word unless you live in the word? You get me? So you know the pattern of the world because you live in it, so you now need to know the pattern of the word by living in the word, so you live in the word, right? And as you live in the word, you'll begin to get revelation. The next step, or let me not say next step, the other thing. So whilst you're living in the word, I will encourage you to at the same time audit the state of your mind, audit the thoughts that are coming into your mind. What are you thinking about daily? Are the thoughts that you're having good thoughts or bad thoughts? What has influenced my thoughts? Where have these thoughts come from? Do I know my thoughts? Who do these thoughts sound like? What do I do or how do I behave as a result of these thoughts? Why am I thinking the way I am thinking? Who else around me thinks like this? Who else around me operates like this? These are just some of the questions that you need to begin to ask yourself as you go through this process because you need to audit the thought. You need to see what is there. What are you thinking? Are your thoughts negative? Are your thoughts positive? Are your thoughts emanating from a place of fear? Are your thoughts emanating from a place of shame, of guilt, right? Of hopelessness, of despair. Like where are they coming from? You need to actually audit the thoughts. There's a scripture that says you must take every thought captive. So don't just accept the thought. You need to assess them, you need to look at them, analyze them. What are these thoughts and where did they come from? And I recommend or suggest rather that you do this as an exercise, a daily exercise. You get up in the morning or whenever you have some free time in the day and you just think. You sit down in a quiet space, turn off your phone, no music, no distractions, you just breathe, and you have a pen, and in your journal, you write out what are the thoughts going through my mind, and you begin to just do that. The reason for this is important because the patterns of the world are there in your thoughts because of your exposure to the world, and you're now reading the word, so you need to audit your thoughts and see okay, are the thoughts I'm thinking aligning with God's word, or is it that these thoughts still mirror the world? Right? So we need to do a comparison, and it's really important. So the questions I've suggested that you ask yourself are just suggestions, and you are free to modify, adjust, delete, and you know, do as the spirit leads. The Holy Spirit will guide you in this process if you give him full access. And let me just say this, guys: I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a licensed therapist, I'm not a psychiatrist or a clinician in any way, shape, or form. What I'm sharing with you is really information and a process that worked for me. So please, by all means, don't take this as professional help. I I am not a licensed therapist, alright? But you have to audit the thoughts. You have to have to have to audit the thoughts. Another thing that my pastor had recommended when he was going through the list or the criteria of renewing your mind, he was saying, guard your inputs. What are you consuming or ingesting? Because whatever you're consuming or ingesting is shaping the way that you think, right? So ask yourself what are you currently watching? Tell me, what are you watching on Netflix right now? And if and if you know what you're watching on Netflix right now, what is the content of what you're watching? Is it is it raucous? Is it raunchy? Is it loud? Is it comedic? Like, begin to ask these questions. What are you listening to? What type of music are you listening to? What are the people around you saying? Are you surrounded by gossip mongers or people who speak negative words? Are you surrounded by people who give you faith-rich information? Or are you surrounded by people who speak negative nonsense? What are you eating? And yes, guys, the food that you eat does impact your thoughts. There is scientific data that backs this up. Now, I'm not a scientist. So please feel free to go and research this on your own. I'm not a scientist. I have not done science since 2010. Food, what you put in your body actually impacts how you think. And I can confess to you right now, so like for the last three weeks, I have not been eating in the manner that I usually eat, right? And it has had an impact on how I process information. My thought pattern is a little slow because I've been eating a lot of junk, a lot of sugars instead of my usual water, fruits, but you know, vegetables, my protein. There was more of a balance in my diet. But now I have fallen off of that regime and my mind is being impacted as a result. My thoughts are being impacted. So in the process of renewal of your mind, you need to be conscious of the fact that what you put in your body is also a part of the process. What you eat is a part of the process. Remember, it's one body, but mind, body, spirit, and soul, it is connected. We're interconnected. So everything that you do impacts it. What are you listening to? What are you smelling? What atmospheres are you in? What atmospheres are you in? What is the physical atmosphere like? Are you going into a space that is cluttered, that is dark, that is messy, that is disorganized? Are you going into a space with someone who makes you uncomfortable? You know, these are things, these are things that can impact your thoughts. What are you putting? What are you ingesting? Right? Your environment and your atmospheres are very important. So you need to pay attention to these things. So you renew your mind by knowing what it is that's going in your body. We have different gates. We have the air gates, the eye gates, we have our mouths, we have our noses, we have our skin. What are you feeling? What are you feeling? Is the environment that you're in causing you to feel afraid? Is it calling causing you to feel threatened? Is it causing you to feel anxious? Is it causing you to feel depressed? We have to again audit what it is that we are exposed to because that helps in the process of the renewing of your mind. This is a big one, this is a major one, and this is one that you hear about it from the secular community, you hear about it in every stage, and if we talk about it speaking positive words over your life. By this point in your journey, there has there must, I promise you, there must be at least one thing that the Lord has said to you or revealed to you about yourself. That is probably hard for you to believe, but if you really think about it, you know that the Lord has revealed to you or He has said something to you. Maybe He has told you that He's that that you are loved, that you are chosen, that you are valued, that you are seen. Whatever it is that God has said to you, begin to speak it over your life. Speak it over your life. I am chosen, I am loved, I am valued. The Lord, the Lord loves me. God adducted me into his family, right? Begin to speak it over your life. I am valuable, I am God's child, I am blessed and highly favored. Begin to speak these things over your life. Don't just post them, open your mouth and speak it until you believe it. Say the words, embrace the words, hear the words as the sound vibrates and continue to repeat it, continue to declare it. Because you're using your your voice to activate a transformation in your mind, right? Because if if if what it is that, if if what you ingest is important to mind renewal, then you need to ensure that you are pouring into yourself as well. Right? And how are you going to pour into you? You can pour into you by using the power of your tongue and speaking positive words over your life, speaking what the Lord has said about you over your life, going into the scripture again, going into the word, looking at some of the scriptures and taking what those what you know what is positive in the scripture and speaking them back over yourself. So if the Lord says you're the head and not the tail, you're above and not beneath, you know, you're a lender, not a borrower. Those things you can decree and declare that I am strong and courageous, I am not afraid. We declare the word over our lives, we speak it, right? Because when we speak something, it helps in the renewal of your mind. It helps, it helps. All of this helps to renew your mind. What you are exposed to over an extended period of time begins to have an impact on your mind. What are you exposed to? What are the words you are exposed to? What are you saying to yourself? Sound words very important. Very, very important in this mind renewal. The power of life and death is in your tongue. So use your tongue to speak into existence your renewed mind. Hold your head and say, I have the mind of Christ. Declare it over your life, declare it over your mind. You know, come on. We can do this. These are some of the things that we do to activate the renewal of our mind. There is no renewal without prayer. There is no renewal without prayer. Prayer is your line of communication with your heavenly father. And without this key ingredient, the other methods will not be as effective. That's my submission. If you want to fight me, go ahead. But that's my submission. Without prayer, like prayer just ties it all together. We need the prayer. Talk to the Lord about what's going on in your mind. Let him in. Let him say, I mean, he already knows, but he wants you to let him in. He wants you to welcome him into the space. He wants you to say, Come, Father. God, these are my thoughts. God, these thoughts are kind of cringy right now. Honestly, I don't know why I'm thinking like that. I don't know why I'm exposed to this kind of thinking. Honestly, it makes me uncomfortable. Lord, help me to process this. Help me to release this. Help me. Let the Lord in. Prayer is so effective. Prayer is effective. That is your that is one of your when I tell you, that is one of your superpowers. That's one of your strongest weapons, is your prayer. Never forget prayer is the core of your relationship with your heavenly father. Pray for your renewed mind. Prayer is powerful. Don't sleep on prayer. Don't sleep on it. Prayer just prayer activates it all. Prayer activates it all. Like when you pray, like when you begin to do the other things, when you begin to read your word, when you begin to speak positive words over yourself, when you begin to assess the thoughts that come through your mind, when you trust me when I tell you, when you pray, it ties it all together. But I have another one for you, another one that I touched on at the beginning of this podcast. So if you were listening, you'd be paying attention. Um, and you can tell it to me. But the other key ingredient in this entire process of mind renewal is rest. Rest, rest, rest, rest, rest. This one, many of us overlook. We live in such a fast-paced world that when someone expresses the need to step back, pause, or take a break, it is easier to scrutinize them and judge them than it is to support them in rest. But rest is critical. Even God rested after the creation of the earth. God rested on the seventh day. God, the creator of the universe, the God of yesterday, today, and forever, the God who is already in the future, the Lord that knows the beginning from the end. The Lord rested. And then He commanded us to rest. The fourth commandment talks about remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. What does the Sabbath represent? The Sabbath represents a day of rest. And in Exodus, he goes forward to explain to you that you must work, work six days and rest on the seventh. And not just you, but your servants, all of them must rest as well. Rest is important in the renewal of your mind. To rest is to allow your mind to be recalibrated, it allows it to be replenished, to allow it to be restored. Rest is important. And if you're being honest with yourself, you can know how you operate, the how you operate when you have maximum rest and when you have minimum rest. And rest is not always just sleep because some of us sleep and we don't have rest. Right? So rest is not just sleeping, rest is in being in a state where you're not overly stimulated. And guys, this is particular in particularly important in this era that we live in when we have all of these gadgets. Right? You have the AirPod in your ears, you have the Apple Watch on your hand, you have the phone, you have the iPad, you have the laptop, you have the entire Apple ecosystem. And we if one thing rings, everything goes off, you're overstimulated. You know, when you go to work, you have three laptop screens in front of you, the lights are on, there's so much stimulation. You need to find a way to decompress and to calm down. How do you renew your mind if your mind is at is is running a marathon? If it's it's it's running a sprint every day. You need rest. You need to unplug, you need to take some time and sit down, to breathe, to read a book, to relax, to to journal, to meditate. Rest is important, of course, guys, to sleep, to sleep, to rest, to allow your thoughts some time to process. Right? Rest the key ingredient. Key key key ingredient. And I again I said this in the last episode. Don't overlook the power of your community. Mind renewal is important, but your community, the community that you have can assist you in the process of renewing your mind. The community, the community that you're a part of, the church community, your friend community. But use wisdom, use wisdom in your community. The word says iron sharpness, iron. So when I'm talking about community, I'm talking about the iron. I'm not talking what did my pastor say? I think he said you don't want no dull board. If you're iron, you can't your community can't be no dull board, it doesn't assist you. So if you want your mind to be renewed, don't go around people who have the old mindset that you're trying to walk away from. Use wisdom. I also want to touch on this for two seconds. There may be some of us on here, some of you on here that you've heard all of the tips that I've said, and you know the methods that my my pastor would have spoken about that work to help us to renew our mind, and you may be saying you've tried these and they don't work. Now hear me. Some of us may have things that are deeper that need some additional help. And the things I'm talking about, maybe you have some thoughts that are very negative, maybe you are depressed, maybe you have trauma that is deeply rooted in you. Maybe you have thoughts of self-harming. If those sound like anything that you're dealing with, please go and get help. Go and get help from a licensed medical professional. Go to a therapist, go to a counselor, go to a psychologist, go and get the help. There is no shame in your game. There's no shame in that. Go and get the help. Some of us need additional help. Professional intervention, there's nothing wrong with it. Some of us just need that additional assistance to navigate. Depending on the layers and the nature of your life. There may be a medical condition, we don't know. But you will only know if you allow a licensed medical professional to get involved. Don't allow the culture to dictate to you that you're black, so you don't get that kind of help. Don't allow families to say, oh, what kind of something? Like, oh, you're no. Seriously. Sometimes the process of the renewal of your mind includes getting medical intervention. I go to therapy. Because I need that additional layer when I am trying to process my thoughts. I go to therapy. So get some. That's what I'll leave you with. Yeah, if if you feel that you've done all of this and something is still not right, you've asked the Lord to come in, you still seek medical intervention and again pray without ceasing about it. I hope this episode has helped you somewhat. I know for me it has helped to remind me of what I need to do every day in my journey in Jesus. And that there is no one-time thing. Renewing your mind is not a one-off thing, it's a daily process, it's a daily walk. You know, we don't get to bypass any areas just because, oh well, last year I did this and it worked, or yesterday I did it and it works. No, it's it's a continuous daily thing. Before I close, I want to pray. Most righteous and heavenly Father, Lord, we give you thanks for this day. I give you thanks for every son and every daughter that has joined me on this episode. Lord, I pray for them wherever they are located, that you will meet them where they are and you will touch their lives. God, I pray for their minds right now, Lord. I pray that they will they will declare that they have the mind of Christ in the name of Jesus. God, I pray that you will help them to renew their mind, God, that the patterns of the world that they have been conforming to, Lord, that they they will, mighty God, they will no longer be conformed to these patterns, but they will be transformed by the renewing of their mind, like the word says, Lord. They will no longer be complicit with the ways of the world, but instead, God, they will they will embody the ways of the word. God, they will embody the ways of the word. God, I pray for their minds, I pray for their bodies, I pray for their spirits, I pray for their souls, God, I pray for their confidence. I pray, oh Lord, God, you will strengthen them and encourage them in every way, regardless of where they are located in this earth, God. You know where they are, you know what they are going through, you know what it is that they need to break free from. So, God, I decree and declare breakthrough for them in the name of Jesus, mighty God. God, I decree and declare that their minds will be renewed and God, they will they will not be held in captivity, in mental captivity, Lord. I give you all the glory, Father, all the honor, all the praise, and I thank you, Lord, for what you are doing and what you have already done. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Guys, we have come to the end of episode six. Thank you so very much. We have gotten to the end, and until next week, I am Jaavonne Taylor, and this is I'm saved now what? Bye.