What Is Your Daily Diet?

A man is only as powerful as what he feeds his mind on a daily basis. Strong meals produce strong bodies, which also produce a very active life.

This is true both positively and negatively. It’s an undeniable principle of life. Interestingly, this doesn’t only apply to the human body in general, it also applies to the mind. The information you constantly allow to settle deep into your mind, will form deep convictions within you. These convictions will then determine the things you will give your life doing, and how far you will go in life.

Proverbs 23:7a tells us “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” In other words, if a man thinks he is eternally cursed and can never amount to anything good in life, the same becomes his reality.

If he habitually thinks, that God is against him, angry with him or working against him, his life will constantly produce bitterness. This is not because God is actually against him, but because his mind has fully accepted the negative happenings around him to be God’s ways of punishing or teaching him a lesson.

Of course, to solidify that fact, his mind will bring up 1000 things he has done wrong in the past and claim his current predicament is as a result of either of those sins haunting him.

Unknowingly to him, there are so many people on this Earth who has done worse than he has and are still very successful. This is not because evil pays well or should be encouraged, but because those persons never allowed those negative things they have done in the past occupy their mind.

Mind Renewal: A Key To Staying Ahead In Life

In Romans chapter 12, the Holy Spirit through the writings of the apostle Paul, fills us in on how we can transform our lives and stay ahead in every aspect.

Rom 12:2 KJV And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

To help you understand clearly the point apostle Paul was making in that verse, let’s see it from another translation.

Rom 12:2 ISV Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect.

Reading from the two translations above, it is clearly that the primary way to change our lives and everything about us, is by a daily renewal of our minds.

Take a look at that verse up there one more time in the ISV. But this time, pay attention to the details there. Even the smallest ones.

Did you notice that the mind renewal talked about in that verse is not a passive activity? It’s not something you can leave to chance. It is a conscious, deliberate activity. Something you must put some efforts into achieving.

In other words, responsibility is conferred upon the believer and man in general, to actively participate in determining the outcome of his life via a constant renewal of his mind. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about mind renewal?

To understand what it means, it is best we go back to the scriptures and let it explain for us what it is talking about.

The word “renewing” in that Romans chapter 12 verse 3 actually came from the Greek word “anakainōsis” which actually means “renovate, change something for the better or make it look brand new.”

Paul also used it in Titus 3:5 to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in making a brand new person out of a sin-ridden and hell-bent soul.

Tit 3:5 KJV 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.

So in essence, Paul in Romans 12:3 is talking about changing your whole thought process for the better. In other words, discarding old and outdated information, beliefs, and systems consciously and unconsciously programmed into the mind.

Note that Paul used a present continuous term “renewing” to talk about this. That is to show you that the activity is not just something you engage once and then it’s done. It is something you must do and continue to do every day of your life.

Every single day you wake up, you must continue to fish out wrong beliefs, people’s opinions, superstitions, negative emotions and every other thing you have consciously or unconsciously fed your mind. You must commit to checking your daily diet – what you let into your mind.

Sights And Sounds Of The Spirit

The primary way the human mind is fed and built up is via sights and sounds. By sights and sounds here, I mean the things you hear and read.

What do you hear or read frequently and whose voice do you hear?

The sights and sounds that goes into your mind frequently are very important. You must never treat them with levity.

That is why one of the most profound warnings of Jesus in the Bible is to take “heed” to “what” you hear and “how” you hear (Matthew 4:24 and Luke 8:18).

Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God, reiterated the same warnings in his own writings:

1Ti 4:15-16 KJV 15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

He warns you to take heed (pay attention, be deliberate, intentional or careful) concerning what you hear or read. If they are not words of the Spirit, you trash them!

Some of the mental diets you must cease from consuming are:

Religious Superstitions

Apostle Paul calls it vain words, profane and old wives fables, vain jangling, babblings, philosophies and traditions of men. Religious nonsense!

Col 2:8 KJV Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

1Ti 1:6 KJV From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling

1Ti 6:20 KJV O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.

A closer observation of the tone of the verses above will show you that Paul wasn’t playing around when issuing those instructions.

This is because the Apostle knows clearly that a mind preoccupied with superstitions or unfounded religious jargons, can never be productive.

You must shed your mind of every one of them if you must make progress in life.

Top of the list of these is the teachings that links a man’s financial predicament with the sins committed by his ancestors.

As long as you believe your suffering is as a result of God punishing you for the sins of your father, grandfather or great grandfather, you will never take responsibilities for your own life and make something good out of it.

You’ll always find someone somewhere to blame for your financial misery. Thereby rendering your mind unproductive and useless. Instead of sitting down, analyzing your problems and thinking up possible legitimate and godly solutions, you will end up running from pillar to post and spending the little resources you have on endless religious rituals.

Who told you the Wright brothers who invented the Airplane had a perfect father or grandfather?

Who told you Jeff Bezos ancestors were all upright?

Who told you we can’t find in the lineage of Bill Gates or even Aliko Dangote men whose lifestyles were nothing to write home about?

Why couldn’t the sins of these men’s ancestors stop them from achieving greatness and ranking among the richest men that ever lived?

The answer is simple. While you are busy running from pillar to post looking for endless deliverances from sins and curses from your forefathers, these men are busy thinking up tangible solutions to problems and maximizing the full potentials of their minds.

Fear Inducing Words

Fear, like Faith, is one of the most powerful forces that operates on the realm of the mind and beyond.

The difference between them is that while Faith crushes a mountain down to a mole, Fear creates a mountain out of a mole.

Fear magnifies your battles and cripples your ability to contend for victory. It makes your opponents appear twice their normal size and renders you very small and ill-equipped in your own eyes.

The story of the Biblical people of Israel below explains this clearly:

Num 13:30-33 KJV

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Prior to this moment, the Israelites have seen God do great and mighty miracles and given them victories over their enemies. These includes the overthrowing of Pharaoh and his great chariots of war.

They have watched water supernaturally come out from a rock and manna appear from the sky.

Such a nation with her leaders and God on their side would have been no match for any other. They would have torn anything that stands in their way to shreds.

Yet when the evil report from Canaan came, they allowed their minds to be so fed with it that fear and doubts set in their hearts. And a journey that would have taken them 40 days, extended into 40 years.