Transformation Starts with Your Mind

By Gisela Yohannan

Today I would like to write to you about something that determines our usefulness to God on this earth. It is astonishing to read, in Romans 8:29, the high goal that God has for our life: “. . . to become conformed to the image of His Son.” This, declares the apostle Paul, is an ongoing transformation: “But we all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Though this transformation will not be complete until we reach heaven, we are definitely expected to grow closer to the likeness of Jesus with every passing day. Our obedience, submission, love, service and our entire character should increasingly resemble His.


But why then have many believers made little or no progress at all since they were saved? Why is their love for the world still greater than their love for God? Why, even after 5 or 10 years, do they remain full of unforgiveness, greed, strife, selfishness and jealousy? And if corrected, why do they still fight back or justify their wrong attitudes?

”Our goal must be to renew our mind first, because everything else we do is based on our mind-set.” What happened to the transformation that was supposed to take place? Most often, the transformation is hindered or greatly delayed because these Christians, though they are new creations in Christ, have retained their old, corrupt mind-set. That old mind-set gives them the wrong signals and causes them to act in an un-Christlike manner. You see, our mind-set will always determine our attitudes, words and actions.

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