You are the Image of God
As God’s image-bearers, humans are symbols of Himself in the world. This is evidenced when people put their faith in Jesus, their spiritual nature changes so that it mirrors His. The Lord also affirms it here by giving humans dominion over nature and delegating them as earth’s stewards. And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him (Colossians 3:10).
The earthly distinction begins to fade away when a person is joined with Christ. Christians increasingly take on the image of God rather than the likeness of the people of earth. The Lord also give humans dominion over nature and authority to rule over His creation. Have this understanding that our meaning starts and ends with the glory of God and who He is.
Everything God created has a reason and for a specific purpose, man was created for His purpose, trees give us food, others give wood to produce all wooden products, some gives us shade, beautify our environment, the same as all other creatures have their purposes. And everything God created was to benefit the human existence to make life comfortable to live.
The Lord puts man in charge of His creation and gave man (referring to both men and women) authority over His creation to have dominion over all that He has created. God made man a partner to His creation in that after creating all the animals, He brought them to Adam to name each one and the names Adam gave them are their names till today, (Genesis 2:19-20a). This is awesome, the confidence of God in man was great, and man’s mind was in line or in tune with the will of God.
The mindset of man then was pure having their mind on God, focusing on His direction and leadings, having fellowship and intimate relationship with Him. But when the mind was shifted from God to consider other thoughts introduced by the devil in the garden, (Genesis 3:1-13), we lost the confidence and the purity of thought to do the right things. We shifted from our trust in God to doubting whether all that He has said was true. We serve God with our minds and also relate to people and things with our minds (Romans 7:25). The moment we take off our minds from God and His plans for us, we focus on the opposite of what He wills for our lives and everything goes wrong. He created us for Himself, for His pleasure and to be creative with the raw materials He has given us, which takes a positive mindset to identify and achieve.
What builds the mindset
In growing up, I was told numerous times how worthless I was and good-for-nothing. And I grew up with this sense of worthlessness which controlled the way I think, make decisions and choices. I felt not worthy for anything good. This stored up negative words and behavior of my subconscious mind and responded to situations without being conscious of it.
In a distance I noticed a posh car coming towards the direction of our house, I become curious to know who was in that car because it’s rare to see such cars in that community. The car drew closer and closer and it finally stopped just at where I was standing. The car door opened and to my surprise it was my dad, I was so excited that instead of hugging him, I run to the house to call my mom then came back to hug him.
My dad and mom spoke for sometime which I did not know what they were discussing but my dad turn to me and said; do you want to go with me? Yes, I want to, I answered joyfully. Schools were on vacation so I thought I was going for some holidays and come back to my mom when school reopens. Little did I know that, that was the last time I will ever stay with my mom and the end of enjoying childhood, or experiencing motherly or fatherly love for the rest of my childhood life and also the beginning of my woes.
I stayed with one step-mother after the other. And went through physical and emotional abuse. There was always something wrong with whatever I do. These negative seeds got rooted in my mind, and for more than thirty years of my life, I was controlled by its effects.
I became born again – accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior at age twelve, because He was the only one I had and found comfort in Him alone. I learnt about Jesus when I was with my mom at Sunday school, but my way of thinking did not change. This part of my life was not yet surrendered to God, because I was not even aware that my thoughts are influenced by my past experiences.
I was always trying to please people, to receive the love I did not experience in growing up, but it always ended up being betrayed or rejected. You can be saved and still live defeated if God has not been invited into those areas in your life. My subconscious mind was programmed with defeat and unwanted. It took the grace and the mercy of God to break this stronghold, which has already taken my youthful life.
The mind depends on what it’s fed with to produce the end results, so when it is fed with the word of God, effective positive thoughts, it gains the right energy to do great things. Our subconscious mind reacts to situations automatically with the already stored behavior responses we have acquired from our infancy, either from our upbringing, parents, situations, peers, and the environment. So the results can be negative or positive thoughts. It’s important to realize that the thoughts which enter your mind don’t come accidently. They are the ones you actually want, whether good or bad and the rest you throw away. These thoughts become habits which can only be transformed with the word of God. The Bible says; And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
Focus your mind, be proactive about the things of the mind and also discipline the mind. Set your mind daily on God, through spending more time in His word meditating on His word throughout the day. This change of mind/attitude towards God’s word draws you into a deeper relationship with Him and transforms the mind from its stored behaviors into your potentials.
It’s a breakthrough to discover that you are the master of your mind not the other way round. You constantly have to protect and guide your mind from allowing it to get out of control. You will experience some positive energy from within to do what you couldn’t have done before when the mind is guided by the Lord. And taking time to study the Bible will give you all the answers of life and help you to reprogram your mind, position you strategically to recover your dignity and the lost glory.
You have a 100% control over your mind. The negative behaviors deprive you of the energy to do anything positive and to achieve your purpose in life. The transformation begins by renewing your mind every day with the word of God and right thinking.
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