Journaling to Renew Your Mind

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

When I think about being “conformed to the pattern of this world”, it makes me think of cookie cutters. Stars, hearts, gingerbread men, something of that sort. You roll out the dough and then use the cookie cutter to make whole batches of cookies that look identical.

While cookie cutters are wonderful at Christmas time, the concept has little use for us in our spiritual lives. The Romans verse says that the world has a pattern, a cookie cutter, so to speak, that it wants you to fit. God tells us that we are not to allow ourselves to be made from that pattern, but rather be transformed by renewing our minds.

Default modes

I think in many ways that the cookie cutter pattern is our default mode. We live in the world, and depending on our families of origin and our method of education, we may have been raised with the world’s ideas and educated with its morals and philosophies. Our own sinful nature also naturally falls in line with that world pattern.

We have all these things working from the inside and the outside to conform us into the world’s pattern of existing. The way we react to situations and respond to those around us usually comes out of those defaults that we learned growing up.

Transformed

Instead, God calls us to counter those defaults and live differently. He says we need to be transformed - changed into something completely different. We’re not just talking a different cookie cutter, but an entirely different type of cookie altogether! Maybe even not a cookie any more! How does that transformation happen? By renewing our mind.

What needs renewing?

In order to renew our mind, I think we first need to know what’s in it. We need to identify the thoughts, ideas, beliefs, default reactions, and story lines that play in our minds so that we can then replace them with what is in line with God’s Word.

That’s where journaling can come into play.

Many times we don’t even understand why we respond a certain way or why something makes us uneasy or uncomfortable, or why we fear something. We have to dig deeper into what informs those thoughts and feelings in order to pull them out by the roots.

If you’re weeding the garden and you simply cut the tops off the weeds, they will grow back. You have to dig out the roots and pull the entire plant out in order for it to not return.

Many times our emotions, reactions and the story lines in our minds are simply the leaves of a deeper plant. Journaling can help us find the roots and take care of the whole thing. In a way, it’s free counseling! Not to downplay going to a professional Christian counselor - that can be extremely beneficial, but not everyone is in a position to invest the money required for that. Also, journaling could be a way to do some homework ahead of time before seeing a counselor. How much more effective could your time be if you’ve already done some of the work of figuring out where you have issues? And we all have issues…

What does this look like?

God is our perfect counselor.

He knows our hearts and all the screwed up stuff inside us. He’s also got just the right plan of how and when to address each of our different “things”. Ask Him to reveal to you what He wants to work on next. I know, it’s a bit of a scary prayer. We don’t like the process of dealing with our junk, but we’re so much the better for it afterward! Besides, sometimes He causes us to confront our junk even if we don’t ask Him, so we might as well cooperate!

Personally, I find it so frustrating when I keep responding to certain situations in a way that isn’t right or healthy. It’s quite freeing to finally figure out WHY I’m doing that and then move toward “reprogramming” myself to react differently by changing the inner dialog or the core belief or lie and replacing it with truth.

When you find yourself responding to something in a way you know isn’t godly or healthy, take a step back and journal about it. Ask yourself questions. Why did I respond that way? What was I feeling? What did the other person (if there was another person involved) do or say that seemed to trigger that reaction? What underlying lie am I believing about myself, God or others that might make me respond that way? Where did I learn to respond that way?

Once you have some ideas as to why you respond the way you do, then you can take the lies that those reactions are based and replace them with the truth in God’s Word. Many times just realizing where certain reactions come from is enough to alter our reaction in the future.

Do you journal? How have you seen it to be a helpful tool in understanding yourself?