You: The New and Improved Version

It’s no secret that if you want to get wet you have to get into the water.

Similarly, to experience the spiritual growth you desire, you have to get into the Bible.

Sound simple? It really is simple. But don’t confuse simple with easy.

I became a follower of Jesus in the third week of my freshman year at college. Immediately after, I began to read the Bible for the first time. Each evening I would read four chapters of the New Testament. At the end of the semester, I went home for Christmas break, and for the first time in three months saw some of my old high school friends. It did not take long before they began making comments about how I was different. I was not the same old Jamie. Obviously, I did not agree. I certainly was not trying to be different.

To prove their point, one of my high school friends produced a letter I had written to him from college just before becoming a follower of Jesus. As I read it, I was devastated. The language in the letter was terrible, and the subject matter repulsive. My friends claimed that “the real Jamie” talked like this, but “the new Jamie” was different. Confronted with the letter in front of me in my own handwriting, I was forced to admit my friends were right. I had changed, a lot. I was not the same old Jamie. In fact, I was a very different Jamie after only three months.

But, what had happened to me in the past three months? The answer is I had begun to read the Bible every night. Not a lot of the Bible, just four chapters of the New Testament each night. Yet by the end of the semester, I had read through the entire New Testament.

I did not try to change. And in many ways, I had no idea that I was changing. What was happening to me? As I was immersing myself in God’s words, God’s words were renewing my mind. As they renewed my mind, I was no longer conforming to the patterns of the world that I had before.

But here is the point: God’s power was working through the Bible to renew my mind and change my behavior. Remember I was not trying to change. Instead, I was being changed through the power of God’s words in the Bible. This is the power of God’s Words. They are the only words that have the power to transform our minds and create powerful spiritual growth within us.

The principle is stated in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

Are you reading the Bible every day? If not, start tomorrow. Pick a time, pick a place, and spend 15 minutes in God’s Word.