November 5, 2013
At 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, most of us in the U.S. reverted back to standard time. Something almost magical happened to our smartphones, tablets, computers and TV cable boxes: the time automatically jumped back an hour.
When we travel across time zones, our smartphones automatically recalibrate to the correct time because they are informed by the cell phone system, which is always aware of what time it is in every location.
I recently landed in Germany, and when I turned my phone back on and watched the numbers flip from 2:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m., it occurred to me that regular time in God’s word has the same effect on our minds. If we approach God’s word with a submissive, teachable spirit, it recalibrates our wrong thinking, bringing it into alignment with reality and truth.
One of my dear friends lived 25 years of her life as a gay activist before she met Christ. She told God that she was going to spend a year gathering the information she needed to prove to Him and everyone else that He had made her gay and there was nothing wrong with it. As she started reading His word daily, she found herself slowly changing her view of gender, sexuality, and her identity. It took less than a year for her to come to the point of saying, “OK, I was wrong. I choose to reconcile my faith and my sexuality by submitting to God’s intention and design.”
Another dear friend recently asked me about gambling, since she had allowed nearby casinos to consume large chunks of her income. It had never occurred to her to investigate what God says about it, and when I offered her a link to an article on that topic on the Probe.org website, she was astonished. She now sees all money as God’s money, of which He entrusts some into her hands to steward wisely.
At Probe Ministries, we regularly receive emails from people who fear they have committed the unforgivable sin, begging for reassurance. It is a joy to provide biblical wisdom and urge them to let go of their fears. (Bottom line: people who have hardened their hearts to the point of taking themselves beyond receiving forgiveness, don’t ask questions about it!)
I know a number of people whose lives are being wrecked by unremitting anger toward others. Once they submit to God’s commands to forgive those who have sinned against us, they find they don’t have to be angry anymore.
I will never forget how the truth of God’s word crashed into my college-age wrongheaded thinking about sexuality when I trusted Christ as a sophomore. I had so much wrong! A wise friend handed me a cassette tape by Josh McDowell called “Maximum Sex” that changed everything for me, because it was full of God’s truth.
Romans 12:2 urges us to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Marinating ourselves in God’s word is the key to that transformation. You just might find the numbers flipping in your own mind!
This blog post originally appeared at blogs.bible.org/engage/sue_bohlin/recalibrating_our_phones_our_minds