#30 How to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Sunday LivestreamBecoming Whole

8 Jun

Written By Sharon Edmundson

YouTube Video of the Church Service

Time Stamps

00:00:00 - Welcome and introduction with Matt and Anna
00:02:04 - Talk begins: Sharon shares her personal faith journey
00:06:00 - What is the mind, and why does it need renewal?
00:13:00 - How being disconnected from God affects our thinking
00:19:00 - Practical examples of mind renewal from real life
00:31:33 - Conversation Street: Difference between self-help and biblical mind renewal
00:43:00 - Handling persistent struggles with negative thought patterns

Renewing Your Mind is More Than Positive Thinking

Most of us have experienced it - those nagging thoughts that tell us we're not good enough, fears that paralyse us, or old patterns of thinking that keep us trapped. Sharon opened up about her own experience with this struggle during this week’s Crowd church service.

"My mind and inner life were a mess," she shared, reflecting on her younger years as a Christian. "I pretended to be the things I thought a good Christian girl should be. But in reality, my inner life was entirely different."

This honesty resonates with many of us. We may know all the correct Christian answers and have years of church attendance under our belt, but we still find ourselves battling the same destructive thought patterns.

The good news is that there's a way forward that goes deeper than self-help techniques or positive thinking mantras.

What Exactly Is Your Mind?

Before we can renew our minds, we need to understand what the Bible means by "mind." As Sharon explained, it's helpful to consider how Scripture portrays us as humans:

"Genesis tells us that God formed humans from the dust and breathed life into them. There's something beautiful in that image. We're not just physical bodies walking around—there's something more to us, something that makes us truly alive."

Your brain is the physical organ, but your mind encompasses your thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes—the non-physical part of your thinking. The Bible speaks to this distinction in Romans 12:2, which says:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

This transformation isn't about swapping out hardware, but updating the software—changing the way you think, feel, and perceive reality.

Why Our Minds Need Renewing

During her talk, Sharon highlighted that our minds need renewal because three key influences have shaped them:

Our upbringing and experiences: "Even if we've had a great upbringing, there are things that are not going to be from God. When a baby comes into the world, it doesn't have beliefs about anything. It gradually learns from its parents, friends, teachers, neighbours, and all of our experiences and interactions go into forming who we become."
The fallen world around us: We're constantly bombarded by messages from media, culture, and society that shape our thinking in ways contrary to God's perspective.
Spiritual forces: "The Bible tells us that just as God is spirit and he is for us, there are other lesser spiritual beings who are against us, and they do not have our best interests at heart." These forces use lies to influence our thinking.

When we become Christians, our spirit connects with God, but our minds still operate with the same old thought patterns. This explains why many of us experience an initial spiritual high when we first decide to follow Jesus, only to fall back into familiar struggles later.

Real-Life Transformation Stories

Sharon shared about her mother's journey overcoming an eating disorder. It wasn’t an easy journey, but God did a work.

"Overcoming an eating disorder is a battle in the mind. God will enable us to win, but we have to be very active in committing our will to do our part of the work. I needed to see myself from God's point of view."

We also heard from Kerry, who described how the Holy Spirit gradually transformed her relationship with food and body image:

"There'd be situations in which some of my old habits would come up, and I would realise that there was a different way of thinking about it... The question rose up in me, 'What are you really hungry for, Kerry?' And I realised that there was something emotional driving me to the cupboard... Over time, I began to learn again because I'd completely lost the ability to know what my body needed."

These stories illustrate how mind renewal isn't usually instantaneous. It's a gradual process that happens as we work in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Christian Mind Renewal vs. Self-Help

During Conversation Street, a thoughtful question arose about the distinction between biblical mind renewal and self-help techniques, as both focus on altering thought patterns.

Anna offered this insight: "Self-help is all about relying on your own self-awareness and your own abilities to correct thinking. Sheer willpower, mind over matter, thinking alone doesn't tend to shift it... real lasting change needs something that's beyond us. It needs that Holy Spirit empowerment."

Sharon added, "There's that partnership element where we partner with God and he's the one leading the way... There are things that he does that we can't do, and there are things that we have to do."

Anna used a helpful analogy: "I quite liked the analogy Sharon gave near the beginning about renewing of the mind almost being like a software update on a laptop or mobile phone... You have to be willing and sort of go 'yes, I recognise I need that update,' but there's a bit that you can't do yourself."

This partnership with God is key to what makes Christian mind renewal different from secular approaches—we're not just trying harder on our own; we're allowing the creator of our minds to help rewire our thinking.

When You're Still Struggling with the Same Thoughts

One of the most relatable questions addressed was about persistent negative thought patterns: "I've been a Christian for years, but still struggle with the same thoughts. What am I doing wrong?"

Sharon emphasised that consistency is crucial: "It's like in our garden... there's a patch of grass that goes from our back door down to the garage door. At the end, there's stepping stones around the edge, but nobody uses those stepping stones. Everyone walks down the middle, down the grass, and so with the grass there is a patch that's worn down the middle where the grass doesn't grow very well."

Our minds work similarly—worn neural pathways become the default routes for our thoughts. Creating new pathways takes repeated, consistent effort.

Anna added that modern neuroscience confirms this biblical wisdom: "Most experts talk a lot about the neuroplasticity of the brain and that idea that your brain will just go for the well-worn neuro pathways. And so it is going against the grain. At first, it is difficult to choose different thought patterns to the one that's easiest to do. It's hard work."

Matt reminded us that transformation is a process: "The way the Bible talks about it is a transformation. You are transformed. The Greek word is metamorphosis, isn't it? It's like what a butterfly goes through." This process takes time by definition, and we shouldn't lose hope if change doesn't happen overnight.

Sharon also noted that sometimes underlying issues like unforgiveness can block progress in renewing our minds: "There was a time when I was just really struggling with my mind... I was doing all this confessing scripture and renewing it, and I was still struggling. It felt like I was just putting a little sticky plaster over and I wasn't really getting to the root of the problem. And that particular time, there was actually a lot of unforgiveness in my life."

Practical Steps for Renewing Your Mind

Sharon offered several practical steps for mind renewal:

Recognise you can choose what you think about: "This was revolutionary to me. It might sound obvious to some of you, but I'd spent my whole life believing whatever came into my head or whatever emotion I'd felt."
Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight areas that need renewal: "This can often just be the area of life that you are struggling most with."
Study what the Bible says about that area: "I also like to choose up to three passages of the Bible that speak to me about that area and to meditate on them for the next few weeks or months."
Act on the truth you've found: "I always like to ask myself if I really believe this was true, how would I feel and how would I act? And then I start acting like that even before I feel it."

She shared how her friend Emily uses art as a way to connect with scripture during mind renewal, creating visual reminders of God's truth to combat negative thinking patterns.

The Promise of Freedom

Sharon concluded with Jesus's powerful promise from John 8:31-32:

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

#30 - How to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
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[00:00:00]
Welcome
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Matt Edmundson: Great to be with you. I think we're a little bit late, two minutes late starting, uh, but we've got there in the end. So thank you for bearing with us, wherever you are watching this from if you're on YouTube, but very warm, welcome to you. I think we're also on Facebook and I think we might be on Instagram, wherever we are.
A very warm welcome to you. Uh, it's great to be with you. My name is Matt. Beside me is the beautiful all ran legend, which is Anna Ke.
Anna Kettle: Good evening everyone. It's nice to see you all. Um, yeah, nice to be here. Actually, I feel like I haven't done Crowd Church in a few weeks. It's been a while. It's nice to be
Matt Edmundson: back.
Yeah, it's been a while, isn't it? It has been a while. We wondered where you got to.
Anna Kettle: I was, you know, living my actual real life, doing a yes. This is not all I do in the week.
Matt Edmundson: Is it? Is it not? No. It, it totally should be. And sometimes it feels like it though, right? Sometimes. Sometimes it feels like some days come around fast.
But
Anna Kettle: no, we're happy to be here.
Matt Edmundson: We are happy to be here. Uh, so yes, [00:01:00] and I hope you're happy to be here as well. If it's your first time with us, a very, very warm welcome to you. Uh, you can find out more information about Crowd Church on our website, which is www dot Crowd dot. Church and there's a whole bunch of stuff on there which you can access and um, there's ways you can use the website to get in touch with us.
Uh, if you wanna reach out any Prayer requests, any questions about the Christian faith, then do come along and do ask us. We do try and answer all the questions. I was asked about ghosts this week. Guests, yeah. What's the Christian stance on ghosts and ghost encounters?
Anna Kettle: That's an interesting subject. I feel like we need to come back to that.
I feel like you can't just say that and then not give some kind of answer.
Matt Edmundson: So, well, maybe later. But I, I, I, I, it was a great question 'cause I thought about it a little bit, you know, but actually to think about it a lot, to give a coherent answer to someone who's asking a question, uh, I had to think about it a lot.
So yeah. [00:02:00] Whatever your question is, we love them. Do get in touch. Do, uh, let us know. Do say hi in. The comments, let us know where you're watching from, give us a wave and all that sort of good stuff. If you can. If you're regular, just make sure you like what is it a thumbs up on YouTube? I think it's a thumbs up, isn't it?
Thumbs up. Uh, on the YouTube video just helps us reach more people, so do, do that. But um, yeah, that's the notices out of the way. So what's coming up today? Do you know?
Anna Kettle: I do. Yeah. So, uh, today we're looking at renewing the Mind and we've got your beautiful wife, Sharon, we have speaking to us in a minute. So I'm really looking forward to, um, oh, oh, I'm, hang on just randomly playing something next to me.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's just the, I'm just making sure we're live on YouTube. We are, we are. Live aid in the comments. Hi, A, how you doing? Hope you had a good birthday, man. It was a's birthday this week. Happy birthday. Let's not sing it though. We could
Anna Kettle: become like Blue Peter, couldn't we? We could do like shout outs, birthdays, you know, do that thing where they [00:03:00] hold up
Matt Edmundson: birthday cards for kids.
We could do, we could give out badges. Everyone outside the UK is going blue Peter. Yeah. You what? Cards badges. You what? Yeah. Blue Peter is an institution in the uk. It certainly was when I was growing up.
Anna Kettle: Yeah. And it still was when I was growing up too, but I think it no longer is. May, maybe,
Matt Edmundson: I dunno, maybe it is.
Someone
Anna Kettle: tell us. I don't dunno. Is
Matt Edmundson: blue Peter still on? I genuinely dunno. Anyway, we digress. Uh, let's read it back in. So yeah, Sharon is talking today about renewing the mind. Now we just give you a little bit of context here we are in a series called Becoming Whole. So we're looking at this massive topic of wholeness and what that is all about and what that means.
And so with that, we have been looking about, uh, we spent. A long time looking at this idea of spiritual wholeness, what that means to be spiritually whole. Uh, we've been looking at what we call soul health the last few weeks, which is all about our [00:04:00] mind, our mental resilience. Uh, we're gonna look at our emotional resilience.
I think that's. Either next week or the week after Dave Khan's doing that. Cool. Um, and you are talking about rest in a couple weeks? Yeah. In a few weeks time. Yep. So we've got all that coming up. So we're talking about immense, no, I'm just joining words together. Emotional and mental. Wellbeing, which is emotional, uh, in my head, I'll just join them together.
It's an interesting new word, something like that. So we're talking about emotional and mental wellbeing and resilience. And so in that context today we are looking at one of. Well, let's just say one of the most transforming topics in the Bible, one of the most interesting truths around this. Um, and if you've been around church for a while, you definitely will have heard this phrase renewing your mind.
It's one of the scriptures that Sharon's gonna share. Um, so without further ado, I'm gonna hand over to Sharon. [00:05:00] We're gonna go into the talk. If you have any questions as we go through the talk, write them in the comments. If you've got any stories you wanna share. Any points you agree with, again, write 'em in the comments.
I know in traditional church, you go, you sit and you have to listen. It's not like you can put your hand up and go, excuse me. Uh, pastor, I've got a question because it's all rude on YouTube. It's totally fine. Throw it in the comments. Uh, 'cause Anna and I are gonna be back with Sharon for Conversation Street after the talk, which is basically where we go through your questions and comments, uh, that you put through to us.
So I think I've explained all of that clear enough.
Anna Kettle: I think you have.
Matt Edmundson: Well than me. Don't look at me to do it again, because I can't remember what you just said. Yeah, you weren't listening. I wasn't listening. At least she's honest. I have to be honest in church. Uh, anyway, without further ado, uh, let's hear from Sharon.
Uh, I'm gonna have a word with Anna and then we'll be back for Conversation Street.[00:06:00]
Mark Buchannan: Well, hello, my name's Mark Buchanan and it's lovely to be with you today. I'm a friend of Matt Edmondson's and some of you may have seen me, I think it was last October. I, uh.
Matt Edmundson: Okay. Oh, that was
Mark Buchannan: seamless.
Matt Edmundson: That's, that's what we call going off without a technical hit. Apparently we decided to play Mark Buchanan's video, which was last week's talk.
Anna Kettle: It was so good. You just made me play it again. I dunno.
Matt Edmundson: Sharon's sitting here going, why is Mark Buchanan on the screen? Am I, do I have I changed that much over the last week?
No, it's definitely not your wife. It's definitely not my wife. Oh, there she is now. Hello. Are we, are we, are we good now? Okay. Right.
Talk with Sharon Edmundson - How to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life
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Sharon Edmundson: Hi everybody. Thanks for joining us tonight. So for those of you who might be new to Crowd or don't know me, I'm just gonna give a little bit of my background because, um, I'm gonna use it as a backdrop for my talk.
So, I grew up in a Christian home and as a child I believed in God and I prayed. [00:07:00] Um, but when I was 15 there was this sense that God wanted me to make my own decision to follow him rather than, um. Uh, rather than to rely on my parents' faith. And that night there was a big battle in my mind because on the one hand I wanted to follow God, but on the other hand, I was scared of what that might mean.
And maybe you can relate to that. Maybe that's the situation that you find yourself in right now. So I decided to take the plunge and dedicate my life to God, and I experienced such peace and joy. The Holy Spirit was so real to me at that time when I opened the Bible. It was as if the words had been written for me that morning.
It was an amazing time. And I got baptized about a year later. Now, for those of you who are new to church, when I say I got baptized, I mean that I was fully immersed in water and then, um, brought out again, I. And that was to symbolize the power of Jesus' death and [00:08:00] resurrection in my life. But after my baptism, things started to go downhill.
I had so many questions and doubts. It was partly my age because at 16 it's the time for questioning and figuring things out. But also I've seen the same pattern in other people that after the high of baptism, the testing can start. That was what happened for Jesus. Um, he got baptized and then was. Um, went to the desert and was tempted a lot.
So, although I love God and a grown up going to church, I really didn't understand a whole lot about what it meant to follow him. I had a lot of head knowledge, but I had no idea how to actually put that into practice. I. I knew that I was meant to be living in peace and freedom, and I'd started out that way, but actually, um, as that initial high kind of disappeared, my mind and my inner life in general were a mess.
So I pretended to be, um, the things that I thought a good Christian [00:09:00] girl should be. Uh, but in reality, my inner life was entirely different. And for years I was stuck in a cycle of trying to get close to God, feeling like my mind was getting worse, getting angry with God, backing away, um, feeling a bit better, and starting that whole process all over again.
I decided I'd had enough and I said to God, I'm giving you one last chance to make this faith thing work, or I'm walking away from you. So I looked at some different Christian gap year programs, and that's how I ended up in Liverpool at the age of 24. That was many years ago now. So that year was one of the worst of my life, and it was also one of the best because during that year I started to understand spiritual things and there were three key things that changed me that year.
The first one was repentance. The second was forgiveness, which I have talked a lot about. And the third one is the one we're gonna talk [00:10:00] about today. It's being transformed by the renewing of your mind so that we are living from a place of real, deep seated faith and relationship with God and not just head knowledge.
The key scripture for today is this. It's from Romans, and it says, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is.
That which is good and acceptable and perfect. So these verses talk about being transformed by the renewing of our mind. So I'm gonna answer these questions. What is the mind? What, why does our mind need to be renewed? Why do we need to be transformed? And how can we renew our mind? I. I [00:11:00] am also gonna tell some stories on the way.
So firstly, what is the mind to answer this? Let me paint a picture of how the Bible describes us as humans. Genesis tells us that God formed humans from the dust and breathed life into them. There's something beautiful in that image. We're not just physical bodies walking around. Um, there's something more to us, something that makes us truly alive.
We know this intuitively, don't we? When someone we love passes away, their body might still be there, but there's another part of them that isn't there. The essence of who they really are, their thoughts, their personality, their spirit that's gone somewhere else. The Bible consistently shows us that we're both physical and spiritual beings.
Um, that physical and non-physical. Paul puts it brilliantly into Corinthians when he says, though, outwardly, we're wasting away yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. [00:12:00] I love that because it's so honest and those of us who've reached a certain age, uh, know exactly what that wasting away feels like.
But there's the hope that while our bodies might go on this kind of downward trajectory, something inside of us can actually get stronger and more vibrant. So when we talk about renewing our minds, we're not talking about getting a new brain, like upgrading our computer hardware. I'm not sure anyone's actually worked out how to do that yet.
We're talking about something deeper, that inner part of us where our thoughts and emotions and beliefs live. Think of it like this. Your brain is the hardware, but your mind is the software running on it. Your brain is physical, your mind is non-physical. The analogy of a computer doesn't totally work though, as interestingly, new research shows that when we change our thinking, it can bring about physical changes in our brain.[00:13:00]
The Oxford diction redefines the mind as, um, what enables us to be aware, to think and to feel. So when the Bible tells us to renew our minds, it's essentially saying we need to update our operating system to change our patterns of thinking. But why do we need to do that? To answer this question, we need to look a bit more at how we are created to be and what went wrong.
So the Bible tells us how the first people, Adam and Eve, were physically alive. That is the physical part of them was connected to the non-physical, to the spirit or the soul. They were also spiritually alive in that their spirit was connected in relationship with God. But they turned away from God and became disconnected from him.
They became spiritually dead. And to be disconnected from God means to be disconnected from the one who created all things and know how, knows how all things work. [00:14:00] He's the one who came up with the idea of marriage, family, friendships, work the environment. He knows how they all work. He's the source of life and beauty and all things good.
The Bible tells us that all of us, like Adam and Eve, have turned away from God and were spiritually dead. We became disconnected from God. Ephesians two tells us, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom, of the heir, the Spirit who's now at work in those who are disobedient.
When we live disconnected from God or spiritually dead, we tend to live as described in the next few verses of this passage. All of us also among them at one. Um, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and [00:15:00] thoughts like the rest. We were by nature deserving of Ru.
When disconnected from God, we all tend to come up with our own ideas of what's right or wrong. Live your own life is a popular thing today, but it's not a new concept. There is good news though. The next verses in Ephesians say this, but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.
Even when we were dead in in transgressions. It's by grace that you've been saved. So through Jesus, God made a way to reconnect us to himself. He made a way so that we could become spiritually alive. But he won't force himself on us. He waits for us to accept his invitation. And when we turn from living our own way and accept his invitation, our spirit becomes connected with his spirit.
We become spiritually alive or we, we [00:16:00] become born again. So does this mean that if we accept his invitation, if we become a follower of Jesus, that everything just slots into place, into life? No, not at all. As spirit may become connected with God, but our mind still has all the same ingrained thought patterns that it used to.
This was one of my problems. So even though I've been brought up in the church and had a lot of head knowledge deep down, I had lots of faulty thinking patterns about myself, about God, about relationships, about everything. Really what we think deep down affects how we behave. So where do our 40 thinking habits come from?
Firstly, they come up, uh, they come from our upbringing. Even if we've had a great upbringing there, there are things that are not gonna be from God in that when a baby comes into the world, it doesn't have, um, a belief system or it doesn't have beliefs about anything. It gradually learns from its parents, from its friends, from its [00:17:00] teachers, neighbors, and all of our experience and our interactions, um.
Go into forming who we become, as well as the way that we interpret what's happened to us and the choices that we make. And none of that gets erased from our minds when we decide to follow Jesus. It's all still there. Secondly, we live in this world that is not as God intended it to be. And so we are influenced by the fallen world around us, by the media, our, our work environment, maybe our family environment.
Um, all these different things still have an impact on us. The Bible also tells us that just as God is spirit and he is for us, he's on our side. There are other lesser spiritual beings who are against us, and they do not have our best interests at heart. Um, this might sound crazy to some people, but, um, these, these spiritual forces, uh, use lies to try to control us.
And if you've ever been [00:18:00] heavily involved in the occult, you'll be more aware of this than the average person. So we're in a spiritual battle, and the battle takes place in our minds. So a few weeks ago in my talk about forgiveness, I mentioned that my mom, uh, used to have an eating disorder from when I was about two until after I'd left home.
Today she is like a totally different person. She has been transformed and I told her I was preparing for this talk and I asked her if there was anything that, um, anything to say that, you know, I could include. Um, and she said this. Overcoming eating a disorder is a battle in the mind. God will enable us to win, but we have to be very active in committing our will to do our part of the work.
I needed to see myself from God's point of view. The next step was to turn around from trying to run my own life my way and put my life and plans into his care and control. [00:19:00] So when we start to follow Jesus, we become part of his family and he's head of that family. So we need to turn away from our old way of thinking and learn his ways.
We need to learn the culture of his family and how he set things up to work. Another friend of mine gave me an example of how the Holy Spirit worked in her life and helped her to transform her thinking in the area of eating and her body image. And hopefully we've got an audio of, uh, what she has to say about this.
Kerry Connolly: Thinking about a time in my life where my mind has been renewed, I've experienced the renewing of my mind. This is Kerry, my friend. Um, I think specifically about. My relationship with food and my, my relationship with my body image, which had been very poor probably my whole life, but particularly through my teenage and early twenties, I would binge and then [00:20:00] starve myself and binge and starve and eat very chaotically and eat all sorts of things that weren't good for me and all that sort of thing.
And it, it, it got a bit better just as I'd got older but hadn't really fixed that relationship. And one time when I sat down with God to pray, I felt the Holy Spirit say, let's talk about food. And I didn't want to because it felt too hard. But in that time, it just showed me a, a couple of key. Roots that were there, which I won't go into now for time, but showed me some of the, the roots of that wrong relationship with food and my body image, um, which I needed to turn away from really, I needed to let go and say, okay, I, I won't do it that way anymore, so I'll give it to you, God.
Um, but that was just the beginning because after that I said to [00:21:00] God, well. I know I've cleared the way, but I dunno how to have a good relationship with food because I've never had one. So, so will you show me And I, nothing particularly came in that moment, but then as the days and weeks and months unfolded, there'd be situations in which some of my old habits would come up, and I would realize that there was a different way of thinking about it.
Just a couple of examples. At a buffet, if we, if I was ever at a buffet, I would just put everything on my plate and eat it all as if I was never gonna have food ever again. As if the chocolate fudge cake was never gonna be on offer again or whatever it was. And I, the first time I went to a buffet, after this time, I'd had, uh, with God, I just felt a prompt to.
To just take a look at what was on the buffet and think what actually looked [00:22:00] really good and, and also to resist that lie that I was never gonna get an opportunity to eat nice food like this again. And so then I just, I looked through the whole buffet and then picked the things that I particularly wanted and ate those and was full at the end of it.
And so I didn't go back for anymore. And that was it. A major change for me. And then another example would be when I would go to the cupboard, um, to, I dunno, just find anything and everything I could to eat. And the question rose up in me. What are you really hungry for? Kerry and I real, I just needed to stop and think and realize that there was something emotional driving me to the cupboard.
And it might be as simple as being a bit bored, or it might be, it might have been loneliness, or it might have been a bit of [00:23:00] insecurity or anxiety. And realizing in those moments that I could turn to God with those feelings rather than turn to food. And over time as that happened, I, I began to learn again 'cause I'd completely lost, lost the ability to know.
What my body needed when I was actually hungry, and to eat things that were good for my body instead of just satisfy my emotions, but also what, what my soul needed, you know, what I was feeling. And those are things that just happened very gradually as I began to change my thinking and knew God's help in changing my thinking.
Mark Buchannan: That's it.
Sharon Edmundson: How the Holy Spirit just very gently took Carrie on a, a journey with that and transformed her by renewing her [00:24:00] mind. Um, so. My next question is, why do we need to be transformed? At the beginning, I read these verses, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is.
That which is good and acceptable and perfect. So we need to be transformed because we're all a little bit broken or damaged by life. We all miss the mark of who we were created to be. We need to know what God's will is in each area of our lives. Now, I dunno what you hear when I say God's will. Maybe you hear, oh, God just wants to assert his will on me like a controlling partner.
That's not what I'm talking about at all. It's more like a manufacturer giving instructions on how to get the best result out of what he's made, or a parent steering a child, uh, in life so that they can flourish and not flounder. God's will. The way he set things up to [00:25:00] work is good and perfect. Just as my mom and Kerry found out God's way brings life and freedom.
So my husband, Matt, who's hosting today, didn't have a Christian upbringing and his parents divorced I think when he was about nine. Um, and he later became a Christian and he knew that one day he wanted to get married. So he spent a long time studying what the Bible said about how to be a good husband, and also hanging around families where.
The marriage was a good one so that he can actually see what that looked like in action. He renewed his mind on that subject and I'm really glad he did because he's an excellent husband as a result, and he's not paying me to tell this either. Um, so my mind needed renewing on this subject too, because when I first came to Liverpool, I remember meeting a couple who'd been married for.
I think just over a year. A year. And they looked like they still loved each other, and I can remember feeling [00:26:00] really shocked about this and realizing that deep down I thought that the way things worked were that you fell in love with somebody, you got married, and then you gradually disliked each other more and more forever.
Um. I hadn't chosen to think like that. It wasn't what I'd been brought up to think, but somehow that had snuck into my thinking, and I remember feeling as if the Holy Spirit was revealing to me what was in my heart and inviting me to renew my mind in this area. I. So how can we renew our mind? I do like a bit of practical stuff as well.
Um, so here are some key things that have helped me. Firstly, we need to recognize that we can actually choose what we think about. This was revolutionary to me. It might sound obvious to some of you, but I'd spent my whole life. Believing whatever had came into my head or whatever emotion I'd felt, and most of the time I wasn't actually consciously aware of what that [00:27:00] was.
And in that first year in Liverpool, when I was doing the gap year, I had this really weird experience where for a period of time it was this, as though I could see my thoughts running across a screen in my mind. And it was the first time I can remember being consciously aware of what I was thinking about.
And it wasn't good. Secondly, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to highlight what area of our mind needs to be renewed first. Um, this can often just be the area of life that you are struggling most with. Um, and I wouldn't necessarily get too hung up about, oh, is this the Holy Spirit or is this just me? If there's an area you're struggling with, maybe that's just what you need to start with.
Thirdly, spending time studying the, in the Bible in that area. Um, I, I love, I'm someone who actually really enjoys that. Um, I. I also like to choose up to three passages of the Bible that speak to me about that area and to [00:28:00] meditate on them for the next few weeks or months. When I say meditate, I'm just talking about think purposefully, thinking about them and speaking them out over my life.
Choosing to be that over how I'm thinking or feeling until it becomes my default way of thinking for that area. For example, if you feel like you're worthless, you could spend time, um, thinking about those verses where God talks about how we're his workmanship, his work of art, at this point we choose to renounce the lies that we have been believing and choose to believe God's truth.
Instead, we don't make things true by believing them. We believe them because they are true. I sometimes, um, in the past have. Almost like taking scripture like medicine. So for a few minutes before mealtimes, just taking time to think about the verses and speak them over the over myself, letting them get into my soul and spirit.
Fourthly, we need to act [00:29:00] on the truth of what we found. I always like to ask myself if I really believe this was true, how would I feel and how would I act? And then I start acting like that even before I feel it. All this is not instant. It takes time. Someone once said that the longest journey is from the head to the heart, and it's definitely felt like that at times for me.
So I like to study scripture, as I've said, and take it as medicine. I. But, um, a friend of mine, Emily, has a different way of taking time to surround herself with scripture, and that is through art. And hopefully on the screen you'll see some of her artwork. Um, so these are some pages from her sketchbook from about 2005 when she started doing this.
She kept delving deeper into one verse of scripture over several days as she meditated on it. And if you can't actually see the pictures, there's like a footprint of hers and a hand print and um, [00:30:00] just some writing that, things that have come to mind. Um, one that's on, oh, we've got different ones that have come up on the screen.
There's another bit of work that artwork that she's done that came out of a session that she attended, led by a lady who goes under the name of paper cut prayers. On Instagram. I didn't even know these things existed. Um, so in case you can't, oh, it's not come up. Um. Yeah, in case you can't read that, it says God will keep your days secure and stable.
He will provide a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. Um, the Lord will be my treasure. She said this verse from Isaiah was huge for her as she often felt unstable. Or feels unstable. She was diagnosed with a DHD two years ago and says for her the aspects of A DHD mean that she's highly sensitive and emotionally dysregulated.
She says, and I'll quote, it's certainly been my experience these past few months that God has been the rock [00:31:00] and firm foundation in my life. I'm truly grateful. I'm able to go back to this verse and remind myself that I'm stable through God before my diagnosis. I was pretty desperate. Thinking, um, um, my emotions and, uh, thinking was all over the place.
The combination of being di diagnosed with a DHD and realizing that I'm not alone, weird and permanently broken, alongside creating and meditating on Bible verses like this one has helped to anchor me in my faith. So I love that Emily uses her artistic nature to help her connect with scripture, but maybe that's not who you are.
Maybe music's more your thing and you can connect with scripture that way. However you like to connect. The principles are still the same. I. And this isn't just positive thinking. It's not about manifesting things into being as in new age practices. It's not about choosing your own truth and believing that, um, [00:32:00] regardless of objective truth, this is about aligning our thoughts with reality as God designed it.
So I'm gonna finish with a promise from Jesus. Um, this promise helped me to keep going at times when I really wanted to give up because the battle in my mind was so great. He said this, if you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples, then you'll know the truth. And the truth will set you free.
This is my experience that renewing our minds with God's word brings freedom. I'm gonna hand over back to our host now and uh, we will get into some discussion.
Conversation Street
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Matt Edmundson: Good. Well, welcome back to Conversation Street. This is where we go through some questions. Oh, yes. On the whole topic of renewing your mind. You ready? If you've got any questions, by the way, I do put them in the comments, uh, as we, um, go through them. Uh, so let's jump straight into it. [00:33:00] The first question, this sounds like self-help or positive thinking or it can do what makes Christian mind renewal different?
Who wants to go on that?
Anna Kettle: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think it's quite a astute observation actually. Um, I think that's right that I. Uming in the mind is something different to just self-help because I think there's similarities in that It's all about trying to change the way you think and recognizing unhelpful thought patterns and things that hold you back.
But I think self-help is all about relying on your own self-awareness and your own abilities to correct that. And I dunno about the examples you, you talked about just now, Sharon, but certainly my experience. Kind of sheer willpower, you know, mind over matter. Thinking alone doesn't tend to shift it like it can get so far for so long, um, [00:34:00] thinking, oh, I must be more positive.
I must, you know, be more this, more that. And you know, you, you can try really hard and strive really hard to change your own thinking. And I think to a point you can maybe improve things. But I think real lasting change, it needs something that's beyond us. It needs that Holy Spirit. Empowerment. Yeah. And certainly that's been my experience and I think it's probably That was what you were saying in your examples too.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah. There's definitely that partnership element I think where, um, we, yeah, we partner with God and he's the one leading the way. So like in Kerry's example, it was, um, very much Holy Spirit highlighting stuff. And I think in other examples I gave where, um, like that whole, um, thing where I could see my thinking.
That was not a normal experience. That's only happened that one time, and it was very much like it at the time. It felt like this is something from outside like God showing me what I'm [00:35:00] thinking because that's really what I need and it's that whole, um. In partnership with God, there's things that he does that we can't do and there are things that we have to do, we have to take ownership for.
So we'd like, I think my mom as well, she was like, um, there's the bit that God does, but we've got our bit as well. So I think partnership is a, a key difference. I
Anna Kettle: quite liked the, um, analogy that he gave near the beginning about renewing of the mind almost being like, like a software update on a laptop or a mobile phone or whatever.
And that kind of like. Yeah, that's sort of like update. So it's like you perhaps press a button and recognize that an update's, you know, overdue. I always like go clear, do it later. Do it later. Now at some point you think, oh, I really need to do this update, and so you start the update, but you don't do it alone, do you?
It's like, no, definitely not me. You know, like there's. The, the creator of those Apple phones or whatever, you happen to be other brands available. Um, but [00:36:00] it's those creators, isn't it? The people that create the phones and write the software, they do the updates. They, and in the same way, it's sort of like our updates kind of need to come from further go our creator.
Yeah. And I just saw, oh yeah, that, that's a really good analogy. Like you have to be willing and sort of go Yes. And recognize you need that update and sort of go, yes, press the button. I want that, but there's a bit that you can't do. Yeah,
Sharon Edmundson: definitely. Yeah. Um, I think in self-help as well, it's a bit more of it like, I want to do this, this is my goal, I want to get here.
Whereas in the Christian faith it's about, um, I go back to the Psalm 23, which I think even if you've not grown up in church, you might know where it's sorts about. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And it's like he leads me. So it's about Jesus leading and us following where he's going, which again, I think is quite different.
Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Very good. I, and I, I mean, we've talked a fair bit, I think, about self-help over the weeks, um, [00:37:00] on this whole topic because I think it does come up quite a bit. So let me ask you, uh, ladies, um, I hear this a lot and, and, and I know, um, baby, you'll have something to say to this. I've been a Christian for years, but still struggle with the same thoughts.
What am I doing wrong? So we hear these talks about renewing your mind. We go, oh, that sounds good. But years later, we're still struggling with the same thought patterns, um, or quite often can struggle with the same thought patterns. So how do we resolve that?
Sharon Edmundson: I think it's difficult to answer without knowing the person, because for different people.
It can be a different issue. So I can tell you what, um, has been an issue in my life, but that might not apply to you. It might be something completely different. So I know in the past for me, I might have got hold of like a verse one day and I actually, I have seen this in other people where they're very keen at the start to go, yeah, I know.
I think God's challenging me in this area. This needs to [00:38:00] change. And they'll start for one day and then just go back to the old. I think consistency is really key with this. It's like in our garden, um, so we've got a pa um, there's a patch of grass that goes from our back door down to the garage door. At the end, there's stepping stones around the edge, but nobody uses those stepping stones.
Everyone walks down the middle, down the grass, and so. With the grass there is, um, there's just a patch that's worn down the middle where the grass doesn't grow very well. And it's a bit like that with our mind. When we are consistent in going a certain direction, it wears that path. But if we are inconsistent, you don't get that.
Uh, or another examples like, um, I guess a lorry going on a dirt track, um, that. And if you keep going on the same route, eventually the, the ruts form in the track so [00:39:00] that that. Is actually the easiest way to go and it takes effort to move out of that and to create a new track. Um, so I think for me, definitely consistency has been the way, but that may be different for you.
I don't know. There could be a different reason
Anna Kettle: and I think a lot of that is also reconfirm with a lot of modern sciences. Well, isn't it like most. Kind of experts in this, of which I'm not one, but they, you know, they talk a lot about the neuroplasticity of the brain and that idea that your brain will just go for the well worn, you know, neuro pathways.
And so it is going against the grain. And at first, you know, like, yeah, it, it is difficult to choose different thought patterns to the one that's easiest to do. It's hard work. And it, and it, and it. Take, you have to do it consistently over time and create that almost like new muscle memory in the brain.
The same as if you're training physically. And I think, you know, science and therapy tell us that too. And actually [00:40:00] a lot of it is just telling us what the Bible's been saying for, you know, a long, long time. Um, and I think the other thing I was just gonna add to that was that. It may be that you're not doing anything wrong like it, it may just be that it's bit by bit, and I was struck by Kerry's example where she talked about her relationship with food, and I think what's really powerful about her example and listening to it just now was just that idea that.
It was little by little and working with the Holy Spirit, and it was bit the, the process of her renewing her mind was like really gradual. It wasn't like a once and done thing. Um, and it sounded like it was over a number of, you know, months, years in her life that she worked slowly. And then, you know, things would change and then the Holy Spirit would reveal something more to her and she'd go, oh yeah, I need to look at that.
And I think that that's often my experience as well. It, it's like. Very often when God works in our lives, it's not once and done thing, and you have [00:41:00] to keep close to him and keep walking with him and keep responding to his like little nudges like, oh, just look at this again. Look at that attitude again.
Look at that mindset again. And yeah, and I, I think some, some of this renewing of the mind, it's a lifetime. I think it's gonna take me a lifetime to learn, not to be a self-centered individual, you know, like, because
Matt Edmundson: the, the way the Bible talks about it is a, it's a transformation.
Anna Kettle: Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: You are transformed.
It's like the Greek word is metamorphosis, isn't it? It's like what a butterfly goes through. Mm-hmm. It's example we've used in church a lot. I always liken it to Bruce Banner turning into the hook. Um, but it's, uh, may maybe slightly more masculine example, but it's a process. Mm-hmm. And that process takes time.
By definition. I, I know people that have had a certain thought pattern and they have prayed or they've been involved in something and it has instantly changed. But that is so few and far between. Yeah, I think it's, it's not margin, I think the exception and not the norm. And I think there's a [00:42:00] reason why books like Joyce Meyer's, battlefield of the Mind are really popular books because it's a battlefield.
These things take time. And so I think if you've been struggling with things for a long time, um, welcome to the club. Right. And I think that there are, there's a normality to that, but I think there's also a grace to that. And the challenge then is not to lose hope. It's not to give up, it's to keep persevering.
It's to keep doing what you know to do because ultimately it's gonna work out. Feel good when you do right. So, um. I think just be encouraged, but don't give up.
Sharon Edmundson: I've got another example on that one, which is, was a different, there was a time, a different time when I was just really struggling with my mind and I was doing all this, like, you know, this confessing scripture and renewing it and.
I was still struggling. It felt like I was just putting a little sticky plaster over and I wasn't really getting to the root of the problem. [00:43:00] And that particular time, there was actually a lot of unforgiveness in my life and there were things that I needed to repent of, like turn away from. Um, and once I'd done those, actually the renewing of the mind bit became.
Fairly easy. So in that instance it was because there was other underlying stuff that I hadn't dealt with. And so again, for some people that might be the case, in which case I just encourage you to find somebody who can help support you through that. 'cause I think we all need people to help us through that and encourage us, um, yeah, so that we don't just give up or feel like we're useless or helpless.
Matt Edmundson: The one thing that I would say. All of this is, and one of the things that I've learned, I think in the process, every noon of mind, it's not about stopping thinking a certain way. That is like trying to backfill the Grand Canyon, right? Or the roots that you've talked about. You're, what you're not gonna do is go in and fill those roots up [00:44:00] and as soon as you say, don't think about pink elephants, guess what you're gonna think about pink elephants.
Right? So it's, it's not about stopping. Your self thinking thoughts, it's about creating new thought patterns, right? It's about creating a new way of thinking. And so when your brain says X. You can either go along with that. So let's say you have this thought, you are no good, you are worthless. That could be a real problem.
That could be something which is constantly in your mind. So, and you might go along with that as your default operation. The battle then becomes when you go, that's what. That's what I'm thinking. But there's another truth here, which says, actually, I, I was formed in my mother's womb. Um, you know, the Bible talks a lot about worth that.
I was, I was known before the foundation of the earth that God sort of, I'm God's handiwork, I'm his workmanship. You know, and you can talk about those kind of things. And so it's, it's not that I stopped thinking about. Feeling worthless, but I created [00:45:00] a new habit of sensing God's worth. Does that make sense?
Um, and I, it's a subtle distinction because I think if you, if you, it's easy to get condemned when you rethink old thought patterns. But that's not the, that's not what we're judging. What we're judging is creating new thought patterns and eventually they become the default way of thinking. So, which needs me nicely into this, uh, next question.
Um, what about when the Bible seems to contradict how I feel about myself. So when scripture says One thing, you have worth, but I feel worth. So I'm not just thinking it, but I'm feeling it as well. It's affecting my whole being. So how do you deal with that?
Sharon Edmundson: I think our feelings in general tend to follow what we're thinking about.
And so you can't directly change your feelings, but you can choose what you think about and eventually the emotions [00:46:00] follow that. I think the key thing is to actually be choosing to think, uh, on things that are actually true and. As Christians, we believe that God's word is true, that he's breathed his spirit into it, and it's like a firm foundation.
So when we go with that and consistently choose it. I think it's, like I said earlier, that, um, I, I find that question really helpful. If I really believe this, how would I think and how would I feel? And just start acting like that regardless of how you feel, choose to go. Many times I was like, okay, my brain's wanting to go this way.
I'm feeling like this, but it's like, no, I choose to believe this because I believe it is the truth and regardless of how I feel, this is what I'm choosing and it. When I first started doing this, to be honest, it was a massive battle because my mind had just been used to being able to do its own thing and think about whatever popped into [00:47:00] it.
And the, the first time I started doing this, it was from about the October till, the following Easter, it felt like probably wasn't, but it felt like every second of every day was this battle of me going, no, this is God's word. This is what I'm gonna believe. Um. It was agony. But then one day I woke up and after a while I was like, oh, I've not had to choose it today.
I'm just thinking that way naturally. And it was such a relief. Um, and then, you know, I walked in that for a while and then I stumbled and would have like this big mental crash and then I'd get back up again. A bit like a child learning to walk where, take a few steps, splat on the floor, get up again, but the next time they're a bit stronger.
And then each time, the more you do it, the stronger you get. Um, yeah.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I think that's really good and I, I would probably, yeah, just echo it really. I think often feelings follow beliefs and it's actually really hard to change how you feel about something, but it's much easier to [00:48:00] redirect what you think or how you're thinking about something.
And then often feelings follow after that. And that's definitely something I've found as well, that it's easier to. To choose to refocus how, what you're thinking about Yeah. Then how you're feeling. Yeah. And feelings tend to follow beliefs, don't they?
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah, because it's like we can believe something that's full.
So if somebody tells you a lie, like if, um, if you're married, whatever, and somebody tells you that your partner has, um, had an affair, but they haven't, if you believe that that is gonna affect how you feel and how you act, even though it's not true, and, um. Oh, mine's gone completely blank now. Oh yeah. So, um, so our emotions are a God-given part of who we are.
They're, they're a good thing to have. They, they tell us what's going on inside of us, but they're not always a good indicator of what's actually true for that. We need something external to help us know what is true. Yeah, [00:49:00]
Anna Kettle: and I suppose the other thing I'd just add is that if. Your emotions are really on top of you and you know, people can get really down and really, you know, clinically depressed, can't they?
And I just think, you know, there's no, you know, it is also worth going and seeing a doctor and talking about that as well. And you know, I have lots of friends that I. You know, are Christians that have gone through seasons where they've used antidepressants or we talked about the A DHD example, didn't we?
In your talk and you know, I have family members with A DHD, there's no, you know, there's nothing wrong with medicating things that are need correcting in the brain like as well. So I think it's thinking about all those things that change how you feel, but actually. Renewing your mind is still about belief.
Um, even if you're correcting the emotions, I think the belief sort of sits
Sharon Edmundson: slightly
Anna Kettle: differently, don't they? Yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: And it's also not about denying how you feel, not pretending you don't feel that way. Um, I think we've talked quite a lot over the past few weeks about I. Um, in the Psalms especially, [00:50:00] um, book in the Bible where people just pour out their heart to God and, um, I think God's after that heart connection with us.
So if we are really struggling, we can just go to him and like, say, God, I, I am really struggling with this help. Or, you know, I feel helpless. I need you to just. Come and do something. Um, or I think, did we mention last week about that God, even just our groanings that he can, I'm not sure where I heard that, but yeah.
How he understands our groanings even if we haven't got the words to speak.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's a topic we could talk for many hours about this whole idea of renewing your mind. That transformation starts when our thinking changes and when our thinking aligns with the word of God and. It's not a self-help thing.
This is a spiritual transformation and when we start to think different, life becomes different and um, there's a lot more to it. I feel like we are just literally scratching the surface, but it [00:51:00] is definitely a topic worth looking at some more. And one of the things I'd encourage you to do this week is just, I dunno, whether you journal, um, whether you're a voice note kind of person.
Whatever it is when you just wandering around the park or whatever, you're just starting to think things. Just jot down what those thought patterns are and just think about that. This is what I'm thinking. Is that a healthy thing? Is that the right way to think? Is that what God's saying on this matter?
Is there a different way maybe that I could think about this? What does the Bible say about it? Um, and I think just that challenge alone, you, you start to see your thoughts, you start to understand your thoughts. And when you do that. Um, I think you really start to open the door for the Holy Spirit to come in and, um, every, every transformation starts in a small space, right?
So, the amount of times I've been in the gym and people have come in, you know, I wanna work out and they want, what they want to do is bench a hundred kilos, deadlift 200 kilos, you know, um, Bethany has been in the gym recently. She [00:52:00] wants to like, have her many pull-ups and pushups, but she can't. And the struggle is to get from A to B.
There are these very definite steps you've gotta take along the way, and you've gotta start small, but you will get there with consistency and with the Holy Spirit's help. So be encouraged. Life can change. You can be utterly transformed. And I think this is true if you struggle with mental health, I think it's true.
If you struggle with anxiety, if you struggle with depression, um, like we said, me, we're not against medication. Um, nor am I against. Allowing the Holy Spirit to help you change your thought patterns and to change your thinking. Um, I, I just, there are people that I meet that feel like the way they think is the way they think, and there's no way out.
And that level of hopelessness is totally not true. Um, and I think God can transform you wherever you're at. So next week, do you know what's going on? Next week, I'm looking at you both knowing full well you don't know. Nice. [00:53:00] Somebody didn't tell us. I'm just gonna renew your mind right now. Change your thinking.
Uh, next week, um, is Will Southworth talking about hope. So we're gonna, well this idea of hope and this topic of hope is so foundational to the, what we've been talking about tonight actually. Um, and so Will's gonna come and share with us about hope next week. Daniel hosting right. I know nothing. I turn up, I look good.
I do my thing and I go, is that what happens? So Dan's hosting with Jan next week. Uh, it's been a few weeks since Jan been on, actually. Uh, so Jan and Dan next week, come join us for that and that conversation about hope. It'd be great to see you there now. After the services has ended, oh, look at the time, we will jump very quickly for a few minutes onto the Google Meet.
Um, so if you wanna come hang out afterwards and say How's it feel, the freedom, the Uur l will be in the comments. [00:54:00] It is Go Crowd Church slash meet, MEET. Uh, that'll take you to the Google Meets Room. Um, but other than that, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, anything from you ladies in closing?
Anna Kettle: No, I just think that final point is so important that there is hope.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. I just, you know, that's a great message to take away. Mm-hmm. And take out into the week.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah. I think similarly, I think just if it's an area you struggle with, I sympathize with you 'cause I've really struggled. Um, um, and there's no shame in that. Mm-hmm. God, he helps us in our weakness, so. Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Absolutely. So were you gonna say something then? Okay. I was just, I was getting very excited. I thought, I know I was gonna say something. I loved how you, I said, is there anything else you wanna say? And you went, no, but then said something. Okay. I enjoy this. It's an observation. Anyway, thank you so much for joining us.
Have a phenomenal week wherever you are in the world, uh, God [00:55:00] bless you. We will see you next time. That's it from us. Take care, guys. Bye for now.