Changing Your Mind

“He has blinded their eyes, and He hardened their hearts; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their hearts, and be converted, and I heal them.”  John 12:40 quoting Isaiah 6:10.

Changing Your Mind

Converted – “Follow me.”  But Jesus is going the opposite direction.  “Lord, don’t you see where I’m heading.  Look at the possibilities.  Look at the potential for success if we go this way, Lord.  I’ve mapped it all out.  This is the way that makes the most sense.  Why are you heading off in that direction?”

“Follow me.”

If I am going to follow Jesus, I need to change my mind about a lot of things.  I need to measure my actions by a different standard, pursue a different goal.  Unless I change my mind, I will always find myself arguing over His direction.  Denying myself means giving up the map that I used to use.

The Greek is epistraphosi, to turn away from one thing and toward another.  But the quotation in Isaiah puts our attention on the Hebrew word translated “perceive” (biyn).  Then we see that “conversion” includes discernment, perception and action based on reflective understanding.  Conversion absorbs the whole person, body and mind.  If I am going to follow Jesus, my feet and my mind both need redirection.

These two words give us important insights into the experience of conversion.  First, there is no conversion that does not affect how I think.  If I am going to follow Him, my worldview will be altered.  If it isn’t, I am probably not following.  Following Jesus means a change in my thinking about success, money, power, influence, politics, time, and a dozen other things.  Secondly, conversion is not a blind leap.  It is supremely rational because it is a deliberately thoughtful process.  Emotional conversion in a heated moment means nothing if my subsequent thinking is not dramatically different.  I do not leave my mind on the table when I come to Jesus.

Too often Christians today adopt an anti-intellectual approach to conversion.  What a shame!  God is the author of clear thinking and truth.  I fear no rational argument about Him for I know that He understands it all.  Understanding the things of God requires all of my mind, just as Jesus commands.

Have you committed your thoughts to His direction?  Are you exercising your reason on His behalf?