So how do you stop thinking the way you have always thought about things? Romans 12:1-2 says don’t be the way the world is and don’t’ think the way the world thinks, but be transformed into the image of Christ by the renewing of your mind. So how do you do that?

When you think, your brain generates electrical energy that travels from “neuron” to “neuron.” As these electrical pulses travel across your brain, the neurons involved develop more, creating a pathway that is ever more easier for the electrical pulses to follow. Thus your brain develops a system of trails or highways. When you think a thought over and over again, that trail becomes a deep rut. Having thought the thought over and over again, it will begin to affect your reasoning and become a part of your belief system. You will eventually justify or defend your actions even though they may be ungodly. You will eventually convince yourself that you have a good reason or right for your beliefs and resultant actions.

To break out of this downward spiral, it will take some determined effort. It takes time to o change a direction. Just as it took time and repetition to form your ungodly beliefs, it will take time and repetition to replace them with your new godly beliefs. God has provided the way, but you have to choose it. 2 Cor 10:3-5 instructs us to pull down, tear down, every thought that is against God.

Ungodly beliefs are not God’s thoughts, so those thoughts are trying to put themselves above God. God and His thoughts should be what are exalted in our life, not ungodly beliefs. The battleground is in the mind. We need to apply God’s weapons against everything that would try to keep our thought patterns and habits in the old way. Strongholds of fear, worry, bitterness, anger, shame, control, etc. need to come down and be replaced by Christ’s thoughts. Ungodly beliefs are open doors inviting satan to come into our minds. If we don’t reject satan’s lies, then we accept them as truth. Isn’t it awful to think that we are believing and trusting what satan says about us more than what God says about us? God promises He has given us all we need. (2 Peter 1:3-4).