The Key

Glaring at us from the pulpit, their faces stern and their voices tinged with condemnation they thunder, “You must repent!”

Okay, but what exactly do they mean?

Then they continue, louder and sterner, “Cry out to God for forgiveness of your sinful ways and turn and go in the opposite direction! Repent now!”

Okay, we get it, but isn’t repentance more than crying over sin and going in the opposite direction? We need to take a step further as repentance also involves changing our thinking. To cry out for forgiveness, and to go in the opposite direction cannot be genuinely achieved and sustained if our hearts and minds are still stuck in the old mindset.

As we read in Ephesians 4:22-23 (GNT)

“So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new”

Understand that renewing your mind is not as simple as declaring, “I change my mind”, it is a process that does not happen overnight, and it is not something that you can do on our own. It is a continuous working in you by the Holy Spirit but you do have a part to play in all this, you have to be willing and determined to become new, in your thinking, in your doing, in your outlook; you need to want to be a new creation.

This process is an inside-out process where Spirit uproots and you let go, where Spirit replaces and you graciously receive, and where Spirit instructs and you humbly obey. It is a transformation which effects a major transition in your thinking; a reprogramming of you so that you may move into a higher level of living, Kingdom living.

Photo by O'Reilly Lewis

You must “set your hearts on the things that are in heaven” (Colossians 3:1) in order to see the manifestation of the Kingdom in your life. Your renewed mental disposition will affect not only your thinking but there will be a change in the way you pray and communicate with God and your fellow man. It is the key to your experiencing the Kingdom.

Let these words of Luke 17:20-21(GNT) soak in for the remainder of the day,

Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, “The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is within you.”

 

 

 

Shelley Johnson “The Key” © February 22, 2025