ballasyder said:
Hey I was just wondering something. I know as christians we are suppose to sanctify our mind and change our thoughts("reprogram" our mind) and as a result we will put off the negative and become more pure but I was wondering how is that different from non-christians doing the same thing, because if they don't focus on the negative and change their attitude they will become more pure in mind as well. So i was just wondering what the difference is. Thanx and God bless! Any info would be great!
I have thought alot about this aswell. Here is how I view it.
Changing mindsets in psychiatry usualy means swapping out negative thoughts with good thoughts.
eksample: "Bob" has a low selfesteem. Whenever people try encourage Bob og give him a compliment he instantly thinks "They just say this to be nice" or "they dont really mean it" etc.. Something is causing Bob to think negativly about himself.
Now Bob can change this thought by first figuring out why he thinks this way in the first place. Then see if he can try swap it out with a positiv thought.
One way to change this negative mindset would be to say affirmations. Train yourself to like yourself sort of. For eksample writing 10 things you like about yourself and do this on a daily basis.
This way you can change the negative mindset.
The same way works with scripture and Jesus. You can find verses that speak of GOD's love for you , your value in Christ etc. and meditate on them. Same effect as above only with the help from Jesus usually things work out alot faster and since you are also meditating on his word you become more like him, and the more you become like him the more you become how you were supposed to be(how you were created) since we are an image of him.
Greater benefits
However when then bible talks about the renewing of our minds it doesn't only mean what I described above but something else aswell. We as christians have the holy spirit living inside us. He will sometimes point out things about our thoughts and minds that are negative that we need to change or turn away from. Sometimes theese things are not things we ourself consider negative but something the spirit is telling us we need to turn away from. We can maybe change our negative thought to be more positive but ultimatly we need forgiveness to become pure. Nothing we can do can make us pure. We need to be cleansed and thats not something you can do on your own.
Secondly, if there is sin in our thoughts we can ask Jesus forgiveness and we can let the sin die. Once that sin is nailed to the cross with Jesus we are free and can move on. This is not something we can do on our own.
