Christian Discipleship
Walking With You As You Walk With Jesus
Walking With You As You Walk With Jesus
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is; His good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12: 1-2
One of the first and most important steps becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ is to renew your mind. What you think you know and how you think were learned when you were not a Christian and can hamper your growth. In effect renewing your mind involves getting rid of old thoughts and replacing them with Christ-centered thoughts.
One of the best ways to understand this issue is in the context of worldviews.
Your worldview is how you view the world. It generally involves answers to four main areas: origins, meaning, morality and destiny. These answers form your tightest held and most important beliefs.
Worldviews act like gates, they help determine what beliefs you will consider adopting and which ones you will ignore out of hand.
Certain beliefs logically entail other beliefs. Your core beliefs (your worldview) determines your secondary and lower beliefs. If you believe one thing, you cannot believe something opposite to it and still be logically consistent.
Since your worldview when you come to Christ has been formed mostly by non-Christian influences, you will find that certain beliefs of yours do not match up with other ones. One of the first real tasks of new Christians is to figure out and adopt a biblical worldview. This means rejecting old beliefs that are harmful to your faith, and adopting new beliefs in line with your faith.
Yes... this a lot of work. But it is important and will make you a better follower of Christ.