God has a marvelous plan for our lives. We read about His transforming power in many places in the Bible. In Isaiah 61 the entire chapter is about the wonderful changes we have through Jesus. To begin with, He heals our hearts. Then He sets our thinking free, taking us out of darkness and unbinding our lives. His power so transforms us that we become righteous priests & ministers. This is evidenced in our lives by our works of restoration and rebuilding of relationships and ministries. The healing of the Lord becomes complete when we yield our hearts over to Him. God is an expert of transforming our hearts and minds.
Once the work of the Lord has begun in our hearts, our thinking should change. Inner healing should bring on a new attitude in our minds. If we remain in our old way of thinking, we will not see change in our lives. Bitterness and mental illness cause people to make wrong choices, often out of self-protection and the desire to not be injured once again. This shows that the heart is not yet healed. Relationships are torn down, and the person becomes isolated because he cannot trust others. And this person, though he be a Christian, cannot minister encouragement nor care for another person. He is bearing the fruit of an unhealed heart.
Jesus told us that we would know the kind of person by the fruit they bear. We don’t have to guess about the condition of our own hearts if we look at our thoughts, and our actions. If our heart is being healed, our thinking will change. Choosing the right way to think is called “wisdom.” Godly wisdom should be evident in our minds as thoughts which are pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, sincere, and bearing good fruit, (Jms 3:17). And people should see an appropriateness and reasonableness in our relationships (Phil 4:5).
As with anything new, our new way of thinking needs a maintenance schedule. Just as a man who wants to keep his heart physically healthy will eat right and exercise, so in a similar manner we need to maintain a spiritually healthy heart by the discipline of what we think. If we think junk, it’s as if we are eating junk food. If we practice thinking junky thoughts, we are not exercising the good way of thinking that will maintain a healthy heart spiritually. The healthy spiritual heart in a man will think thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. And an important part of maintaining the health of his heart is to be thankful. Then, when all this is in place, the Lord protects this man’s heart and mind with His peace (Phil 4:6-8). That’s a good maintenance policy.
It is not possible to maintain a healthy heart and carry the old way of thinking around with us. If a man wants a healthy heart but continues to eat junk and does not exercise, he deceives himself. One of the biggest deceptions in Man is to want a good relationship with God, and yet have foul relationships with men. If we look at the fruits of wisdom, they all have to do with our relationships with men. God’s protection over our mind and hearts is His peace. In a similar way, protecting our attitudes towards others comes through our desire to live peaceably with them. If we do not desire peace, we miss the grace of God and eventually become defiled again, and can hurt our brethren as well (Heb 12:14-15).
To heal the heart of isolation, one should choose to be considerate of others, and care about the outcome of their day. To be healed of destroyed relationships, one should extend mercy and forgiveness, adding works and words of kindness. To eliminate bitter thoughts, one should think about the nobleness God created Man to be, hoping and praying towards others’ restoration to that Godly image. To purge our thoughts of gossip we should set a standard of purity of truth, and maintain it by refusing speculation or any pretense that exalts itself against that standard (2 Cor 10:3-5). To maintain the love of peace within our selves we should keep love of others alive in our hearts, and remember that God loves us all. And to keep our relationships with others genuine we should determine to follow through on our good thoughts with actions done in sincerity. All this change will be made possible if we allow ourselves to be submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as He heals our hearts and transforms our mind.
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