Renewed - Kept from Evil

Renewing Our Minds

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Gal 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Eph 4:25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

1Pe 2:1  Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

1Pe 2:3  If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

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Renewing - the Greek word is found in one other place in the New Testament- Titus 3:5 - 

Tit 3:1  Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,

Tit 3:2  To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

Tit 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

Tit 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Tit 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Tit 3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Tit 3:8  This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

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The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

We are SAVED according to our Savior's mercy we are saved by the washing of regeneration, we are saved by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. 

We are TOLD to DO THINGS, to BE CERTAIN WAYS, all while being reminded that we were once caught up in very sinful ways.

How disheartening to still be caught up in sinful ways- speaking evil of others, brawling, being harsh-not gentle, not showing meekness to all, foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice, living in envy, being hateful and hating others and the list goes on and on and on.

We abhor ourselves for our sins. We CRY OUT with Paul about how wretched we truly are. We know to do good and do it not and it plagues us!  We long for refreshing, for renewing, for regeneration, for change by the HOLY SPIRIT and it seems to elude us. We want… I should stop saying we, I don't know that anyone else suffers with this like I do.  I want a magic cure, an instantaneous transformation, I want God to fix me in such a way that I don't have to make any conscious effort at all to change because I find it too hard to change, I feel I can't change myself.  I know God WILL fix me, HE will change me but it is NOT going to be in such a way that I lose my ability to make choices, even if that's what I want.  We are going to struggle. We are going to live in this awful world because we can't be taken out of it. God will keep us from evil, as Jesus prayed for Him to do, but that doesn't mean we are taken out of the spiritual war and put in a nice cushy office job far from the front lines. 

'thou shouldest keep'  G5083 (Greek)

τηρέω

tēreō

tay-reh'-o

From τηρός teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon;

and thus DIFFERING  from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; AND FROM G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried)

: - hold fast, keep (-er), (ob-, pre-, re) serve, watch.'

(From Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries)

God will guard us, God will hold fast to us, God will watch over us. God will keep us from the evil, from all that will keep us from HIM if we are truly, and wholly desiring to be His, believing our Savior will save us.  We believe, and our Savior will help our unbelief.

We cannot GIVE UP!

We can never stop serving God with our minds, never! Our minds will be RENEWED by the Holy Spirit, in God's way, by His will and we may not comprehend the how's, the why's, the wherefore's but it will be done!

We may… I may be fighting this awful war and I may be losing battle after battle after battle, but by the GRACE of our LORD THROUGH HIM, BY HIM I will be HIS, forever, victorious through HIM, my SAVIOR!

More tomorrow by the will and grace of our God, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In His love, now and forever!

AMEN.