How to Renew Your Mind with Prayer

obedient to Christ. In today's episode, I want to share with you three powerful points of prayer to renew your mind so that you can think the thoughts of God that change your Welcome back, friend, you are listening to the Teach Us to Pray podcast, where we teach believers practical and real life tips on how to grow your faith and a relationship with God through the power of prayer.

I'm Christina Patterson, host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast and founder of Beloved Women, where I encourage, equip and empower women in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of God's word. Maybe you're like me and you have thoughts popping in your head a mile a minute of what needs to get done today, tomorrow, and even ten years from now. Maybe you struggle with negative thinking about yourself and must constantly fight off bad thoughts.

And maybe you're focused on what everyone else is doing, and these thoughts leave you depleted and envious. Our thoughts can be a very powerful guiding force in our lives. Where our minds go, our actions will soon follow. When we lose control of our thoughts, we are quick to get off course and off track in our lives. So if we want to live lives that God has purpose for us to live, we have to be diligent about guarding our thoughts. A renewed mind does not do the

things of the world. A renewed mind transforms us out of the harmful patterns of the world and into a life that glorifies God. So how can we start to have those types of thoughts? And if that's a I shouldn't, that's on your mind today, You're in the right place because I want to show you how prayer can drastically change your thoughts and in turn your life for the better. That's right, you can pray about what you actually think about.

And we should be praying about our thoughts because they are one of the most powerful guiding forces in our lives. And so the first powerful prayer point that I want to give you to pray over your mind is to first pray that God will help you to become aware of your thoughts. Now, this is so important because you can't change your thinking. You can't transform your mind if you aren't even aware of the thoughts that are coming into your mind that are actually being lived out by you.

And you might be thinking to yourself, well, Christina, how is that even possible? Let me tell you there are so many thoughts that we subconsciously hold onto that we don't even realize, and we find ourselves acting in ways and responding in ways that we don't even expect, and we think to ourselves, where did that come from? And most of the time, it came from a thought. It

might be a thought that you weren't aware of. It could be a thought that you internalized when you were five years old or five years ago, but it started as a thought that is guiding your life. And so we need to be aware of those thoughts, and so to pray about that and ask God, is there any thought in me that does not align with your will and your purpose for my life. Psalm nineteen fourteen says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, my

Rock and my Redeemer. Are Oftentimes we pray about our actions and what we want to do and what God actually wants us to do in our lives, and that's great. We even sometimes pray about our words and have to write words to say and maybe a difficult conversation or to say to our kids. But we also need to be praying about our minds. What are we meditating on? What might be in our minds, in our thoughts that are not in alignment with God? And as we pray to God, he's faithful to bring that up and to

illuminate what those thoughts may be. So, for example, if you're struggling making friends with other women or other men, someone of the same sex as you, right, but you have an underlying thought that women can be trusted or men are boring, whatever the thought may be, that thought is going to prevent you from actually pursuing fellowship with others.

If you have a thought that it's like just nobody can be trusted, I just can't trust anybody, You're gonna have a really hard time developing intimacy in any of your relationships. So do you see how those thoughts dictate our actions and impact our lives. Now, if you aren't aware of that thought in the first place, then guess

what's gonna happen. You're just gonna keep living life and doing what you do and wondering why certain things aren't working out for you, wondering why certain patterns continue to happen and show up in your life. But our God knows our minds and our hearts better than ourselves, and so when we pray to him and say, God, please reveal my heart and my thoughts that I may align them with you, he is faithful to do just that.

The second powerful prayer point that I want you to be praying over when it comes to renewing your mind is to capture negative thoughts that don't align with God truth. So the first step is to be aware. Pray that God will help you become aware of your thoughts, but then that He will give you the strength to capture the negative thoughts. Tewod Corinthians ten to five says, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge

of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Now, our thoughts are so powerful, especially when it comes to the Gospel, because what we believe about God is going to impact our relationship with Him and how we love Him and how we love others. And essentially, this is what the writer of Second Corinthians was addressing thoughts and knowledge that were going around about God and the Gospel

of Jesus Christ that were not true. And he's saying, no, we take these thoughts captive and we make them obedient to Christ. And how do we do that We align them with the truth of God. Whenever you have a lie, it cannot stand in the truth of God. So as we assess our thoughts and become aware of our thoughts, we always want to align them with the truth of God. And ask yourself, does this thought align with God's truth?

Is that really true? Right? And so in order to be able to do that, we have to know God's truth, so we need to also be in prayer, but also in Bible study. We need to know God's truth, that God will not only make us aware of our thoughts, but that He will bring his truth to remembrance to us when our thoughts especially do not align with His truth.

Which then leads me to my last powerful prayer point, to pray over your mind, which is to replace any negative thought or any untruth thought with the truth of God's word. This is called renewing your mind. Romans twelve two says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect. There is a pattern to this world, and it's so easy to just fall into that pattern and do what everybody else is doing, do what the majority says it's the right thing to do, even if the word of God says is wrong and the Bible is telling us that's not how we're to think as Christians. We don't just fall in alignment with a pattern that does not represent God's truth, even if it is held by a prevailing majority, God's truth is

what should prevail in our minds. But because we live in the world, sometimes those thoughts and those patterns can come into our lives. And so we need to be renewing our mind every day, being aware of our thoughts, capturing our thoughts, and replacing any other truth with God's truth. And so we need to be praying for the strength to be able to do that, because sometimes we don't want to believe the truth. It's easier to just go with the pattern of the world and the way things are.

But it takes the strength of God to help us to actually renew our minds, to accept his truth and know that His way is the better way. And so we need to pray that God will not only help us to know his word, something that we need as we capture our thoughts, but we need to believe his word. That God will give us a conviction for a belief in His truth that then renews our minds and transforms our lives. Let me pray for you, dear Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for the minds that You've given

us so that we can know you. May our thoughts be aligned in your truth, God, and may they glorify you forever. In Jesus Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Did you know that God made us all beautifully different even in the way that we pray? That's right. Your prayer personality is the unique way you are most likely to communicate with God, and knowing which of the three prayer personality types you have can equip you to hear from God more clearly and overcome any obstacles to your communication

with Him. I invite you to take my prayer personality quiz to learn how you best hear from God, how you most likely connect with Him in prayer, and just to have a little fun. Take the quiz now at prayquiz dot com or find the link in today's show notes. It is my hope that today's episode has provided you with insightful and helpful tips on how you can pray.

We have so much more to talk about when it comes to prayer, so I hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode, you will share it with the friend and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes of the Teach Us to Pray podcast, where we will continue to learn how, just like breathing, prayer can become a natural, consistent, and life giving part of your everyday life. Until then, be sure to connect with me at Belovewomen dot org and check out the show notes to download

my free five day prayer guide. I also want to invite you to study the Bible with me by downloading the Beloved Women app, available in the Apple and Google play stores. Thanks so much for taking time to listen to say God Bless you, and I'll talk to you in the next episode. Teach Just to Pray is a production of Life Audio and Salem Media. If you like what you heard today, please take a second to rate and review this podcast in your favorite podcast staff so

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