Why Our Thoughts Must Change Before Our Lives Can

"Without a true vision of who we are in Christ, fear shapes us — and fear always shapes us into its own image and likeness.” — RIVER

This old photograph reflects the fractured child hidden behind a woman’s eyes — a child who belonged to Jesus long before she ever knew His true voice. She had not yet seen Him as He truly is. Her eyes had been trained by the “Pharaohs” of her life, shaped by the harshness and fear that ruled her early world. She did not yet know that Jesus was nothing like them — that His heart was gentle, His leadership kind, His love unwavering.--

Every child begins, as Scripture says, “a seed in itself.” We grow into whatever has been sown into us — the DNA, the atmosphere, the words, the wounds, the blessings — all long before we ever take our first breath. As we abide in our environments, we absorb their “flavor,” and that shaping continues into adulthood. Like Ruth gleaning in the fields, we are always gathering from the ground of life. But we are not always careful about what we pick up or what becomes part of us.

It is true that what we behold is what we become — yet how rarely do we stop to consider that. And when we do notice, and we try in our own strength to change, we discover the truth of Scripture: the dog returns to its vomit. Paul himself confessed that the very things he longed to do, he could not do, and the things he hated, he kept doing.

To escape the prisons of who we have been, we must be exposed to the Words of freedom — the words of deliverance, healing, and identity that come only from our Creator. What has been sown into us thus far needs the hand of a different Gardener. The soil of our minds must be turned over, sifted, weeded, and nourished with wisdom — the very thoughts of God, the Mind of Christ.

Only then do we begin to see — not only who God truly is, but who we are in Him. And that, my friends, is life abundantly.

And this is the hope we hold out at The Refuge of Peace Justice & Advocacy Center: before a life can change, a mind must be renewed. Every person who walks through our doors needs someone to love them unconditionally, to walk with them through the slow, holy work of transformation. At The Refuge, we believe that no one heals alone. We walk with them — patiently, prayerfully — until the Gardener’s hands have reshaped the soil of their lives and the seed of who they truly are in Christ begins to rise.