Renewing The Mind, Spirit, and Soul
We are Spiritual but humans with the same basic needs…
The Words of God can give us direction for the renewal of our mind, spirit, and soul. Being human often gets us separated from keeping our minds, spirits, and souls revived as we should. When this happens we may lose our positive outlook on life, begin to doubt, fear, and even become discontented with our life. It is important to keep our mind, spirit, and soul in full focus for daily living.
As David reminds us in Psalms, we are but dust. God knows this but that is why we must watch how we are living daily and go to Him…He is always available.
²”For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Psalms 103:14
Concepts of The Soul
The concept of the soul has been debated for centuries and is often associated with religious and philosophical beliefs. According to the Bible, the soul is the spiritual essence of a person that includes one’s identity, personality, and memories 1. Some people believe that in addition to “body” and “soul,” we have a third part, a “spirit” that most directly relates to God 1. Others argue that “spirit” is not a separate part of man, but simply another term for “soul,” and that both terms are used interchangeably in Scripture to talk about the immaterial part of man that lives on after our bodies die 1.
² “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4: 24
² “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;” Romans 1:9
Ref: 1. Zondervanchieve.com ² The Word of God-The Bible
Our Daily Routine Can Dedictate What Occurs Within Our Life
People do different things to keep their minds focused on the positive, productive, and essential things to living a good and Godly life. It is important to take action within your life if you are beginning to doubt, fear, or feel defeated. Life itself can bring upon us things that seem unfair.
I have had to work on myself through writing, praying for renewal, and reading my scripture each morning and this has been a benefit to my mind, spirit, and soul. I ask the Lord for more wisdom and understanding every day. Once you realize something is lacking, and that you are not as spiritually healthy as you would like to be and begin to study more, pray more, and seek God more, you gain more wisdom.
I have not always focused on the importance of my soul and spiritual health. Like many people, work was my focus. With those years passing, and especially the past five years, I have learned from the deficiencies of my prior life. Your soul and spirit must be a priority.
In this stage of my life, I know that you must live each day with a focus on today, as you may not have tomorrow.
Renewing Positive Thoughts Over Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts can be presented from the human side of a person’s life. How do we keep our minds like Paul has admonished us to do?
²I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
We as humans all have the same basic needs. Physical, emotional, and social needs. We know what our physical needs are. Our bodies need certain things to survive like food, oxygen, warmth, protection, and activity, to name a few.
If you have studied Psychology, you know that certain concepts make us uniquely the same, even though very different. Once you realize that you have a SOUL, your spiritual self, you must try to think upon your thoughts, words, actions, and what your main focus is in life.
Everyone strives for a way to survive in a world that is changing daily. It takes a dedicated spiritual life to combat those things that work against our spiritual life. However, we get too busy to slow down and think about our thoughts, words, actions, and how we may appear to the Lord, and those around us.
How Do We Grow-we grow by our self-reflection
Study your actions (Self-Reflection) in different situations. You will see that you have more times than you want to admit experienced something that was missing within your emotional needs. Not necessarily from your actions, but laid upon you by other people and their actions.
Our souls grow by being saved by grace, and forgiven, and living according to the Bible is what helps us deal with these kinds of earthly, human actions.
The Common Basic Emotional Needs We All Share
A person/human being needs: ₄
- love – to love and to be loved
- approval
- self-esteem
- the feeling of importance
- recognition and
- respect
This Tells Us How We Should Be…
What happens when these Common Basic Emotional Needs get out of balance and how do we live as Christians to prevent these things from becoming a hindrance, weakness, or affecting our relationship with God and other people? We pray for guidance, and mercy, and remember these scriptures.
²Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.”
₄We all use defense – mental mechanisms for our lives when things get out of balance. It is called survival within our human self.
Everyone Does Not Believe The Same
However, when we realize that every person is not going to like, love, and accept it as a ‘good’ part of us, we must just keep moving.
²Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” 9) “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1: 8 -9
We must sometimes overlook other people’s actions, reactions, and no actions, and remember that we are all humans, some of whom have not been saved by the grace of a living God. We must realize that we, ourselves will make mistakes, (every one of us) and have a response that is wrong sometimes. Trying to understand our fellow man as we should is essential. Sometimes we may make judgments that should not be made and forget that we must forgive to be forgiven.
“Every human being acts the way they do according to life things, the good, bad and sometimes ugly part of life. The natural life is not easy, overcoming the unpredictable natural life things is not easy, and only possible through Christ and the Word of God.
Being able to recognize this aspect of life in other people helps us to be ‘more like Jesus. He looks at the soul of man, not what we tell him or how we think things should be, He sees and knows each of our hearts.”
² “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4: 16
Summary:
³ “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
May we all seek to renew our spiritual self on a daily basis to remain in the good graces of God.
