In ancient Jewish culture, there was a ceremonial cleansing process called Mikveh. In fact, it’s still practiced by many Orthodox Jews today, and it involves washing four parts of the body in preparation for entering a place of worship. In essence, it’s a ritualistic bath in which a person spends a focused amount of time cleansing their head, their hands, their chest, and their feet. To ascribe symbolic meaning to it, you might say that this ancient rite was God’s checklist for a right heart and His admonition to set the body, mind, and spirit in alignment with His Word. That said, there’s a lot to be learned from studying Mikveh, so for the next four days, we’re going to look at each part in detail and talk about how it applies to our lives today. Now, the first component of this ritual was to wash the head, which was symbolic of asking the Lord to purify the mind and thoughts. Fast-forward to today and we can see more clearly than ever why it’s imperative that we invite Jesus to reign in this part of our existence. The Bible says that we have the mind of Christ, but in order to take on the mantle of His meditations, we must intentionally direct our attention to the things that He deems important — those that are noble, pure, lovely, right, excellent, and praiseworthy.

My friend, your thoughts become your future, so it’s important to align them with what the Word of God says! Since you are forgiven by the blood of your Savior, you are set free from the compulsion to ruminate on the sin and shame of your past and you don’t need to condemn yourself for not living up to your own standards of perfection. Instead, you can focus on the full sufficiency of God and meditate every day on the power of His promises. In Him, you are more than a conqueror, you are the head and not the tail, and you have the power to exercise divine wisdom in every situation you face. Jesus has given you eyes to see manifold opportunities, even in the midst of adversity, so let go of the suffocating grip of negativity and trust His loving might to renew your mind as He leads you right to where He wants you to be.