What if your self-talk sounded like Romans 8? You’d be so alive with the Holy Spirit, full of grace, and free to be who God made you to be! Meditate on these verses we’ve gathered from Romans 8 and you’ll be amazed at the results!
Renewing your Mind
What do you think about as you go about your day? Every moment of every day you and I have the freedom to think about whatever we want. Our minds may fill with worries, gossip, or sports scores. Our thoughts may cultivate anger, lust, compulsive working, people-pleasing, or depression. Or we can “Be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:1) in God’s Word, letting it diagnose us (Hebrews 4:12), wash us (Ephesians 5:26), and give us life (Genesis 1, Matthew 4:4).
Truly, the thoughts that you choose to dwell on are the most important factor in how you feel and what you say and do. Ultimately, your thinking determines the kind of person you become. The Proverb is true: “As a person thinks in his heart that’s who he or she becomes” (Proverbs 23:7, paraphrase).
Meditating on Romans 8
Romans 8 is an amazing chapter of the Bible! It is full of God’s life-giving promises for disciples of Jesus. It teaches us how to tap into the electric current of God’s Spirit and resurrection life. Eighteen times the Holy Spirit is named in this one chapter! The other 15 chapters of Romans only name the Spirit 10 times.
Try renewing your mind on these words from Romans 8 by joining with God and saying these promises from him to yourself (fill in your name where the blanks are):
- There is no condemnation for ________, who is in Christ Jesus (vs. 1)
- The Spirit has set _______ free from sin and death (vs. 2)
- The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in and is energizing ________ (vs. 11)
- _______ is led by God and thus is a child of God (vs. 14)
- _______ can call God “Abba” or Daddy! (vs. 15)
- Through Christ _______ is an heir of God, inheriting divine blessings (vs. 17)
- _______’s body will be redeemed, set free and made whole (vs. 23)
- The Spirit helps _______’s weaknesses with intercessions from deep inside (vs. 26)
- All things work together for the good of ________ who loves God and is called according to his purpose (vs. 28)
- God takes initiative to know, guide, call, justify, and glorify _______, helping _______ to become more and more like Jesus (vs. 29-30)
- If God is for _______ then who can be against _______? (vs. 31)
- In all things _______ is more than a conqueror through Christ’s love (vs. 37)
- Nothing – absolutely nothing! – can separate _______ from the love God that is in Christ (vs. 38-39).
