When rehabbing a house, there is a specific process that you go by. In order to install or put in new things, you have to remove the old things that are damaged, broken, or simply just don't work anymore.
Sounds like common sense right? Imagine having a plan to remodel your kitchen. You have picked out the cabinets you want. The wall is lined up with paint swatches of colors that you have been trying to decide on since making the decision to redo your kitchen.
You start the work. You tear out the old cabinets and remove the counter tops. The pictures and wall decorations come down to prepare for painting. You plan to put down new tile floors, but first you have to bust up the old yellow and tan floors that have been there since you moved in.
Before you remove the floors you have to move out the appliances. The stove is pretty easy to move, especially if you have a dolly. But then you glance at the refrigerator. That old greenish-yellow refrigerator! It's big and bulky and isn't like the new ones that come with wheels for easy moving.
That refrigerator has been there for years. There's no telling what has fallen behind it over the years. Imagine the dirt and grime that has built up over time.
This hunk of metal has been decorated over the years with coupons, pictures, report cards, and much more. But now, it barely keeps food cold. And once a month, you have to defrost the freezer because it builds a cocoon of frost and ice around whatever is in there.
This refrigerator must go! It just isn't cutting it anymore.
There is no way you can put in this new stainless steel refrigerator without first removing this old mess! It's a no brainer when you think of it in the terms or rehabbing house. Out with the old, in with the new.
But that is exactly what we try to do when it comes to the process of rehabbing our minds. We discover a new mindset, a new pattern of thinking, we discover the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is God's way of thinking and his way of doing things.
Religion is man's thinking, and his way of doing things. In the scale of things, religion is just not cutting it anymore. It possibly never cut it, but at a time seemed like the right thing, and was "better than nothing". A religious mindset is a limited mindset. It has boundaries and much baggage that is not needed.
A Kingdom mindset is universal and unlimited. You have so much more with a real relationship with God. In fact, you have access to everything.
But many of us try to "install" a Kingdom mindset without first getting rid of that old "Refrigerator called Religion". That way of thinking and acting that simply isn't working anymore. That box of boundaries that's preventing you from being the real You.
Just as you can't install a new refrigerator without first removing the old one, you can't install a Kingdom mindset without first removing the Religious mindset.
Think about what relationships, careers, and dreams has "fallen" behind this Refrigerator called Religion. Think about all that you can have and "house" with this new mindset that you couldn't with the old one.
Mind Rehab is the process of removing negative, self-defeating thought, actions, and emotions, and replacing them with thoughts, actions, and emotions that are positive and true. It's time to rehab our minds!
