Renewing Your Mind

German is a language with several challenges. As with any language, it has its own internal rules of grammar that create a logic that must be grasped to truly understand the German thinking. It creates a greater sense of nuance than a language like English. It also allows for greater creativity in that compound nouns can be made of almost anything.

As a language learner you eventually gain enough familiarity to easily decipher large compound nouns by seeing the smaller words within. It is a matter of knowing where to break the word up. Take Gasanbieter. A new speaker would wonder: is it gasan-bieter? Or perhaps Ga-San-Bie-ter? How does one know for sure it couldn’t go more than one way? However, to the retrained mind it is instantly Gas-Anbieter. Even to someone who has never seen the word before, it is the only option.

This is the same process that the Bible is speaking of when it says “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Many believers struggle with deciphering God’s will for their lives. Most end up turning to others: pastors, speakers, authors, televangelists, and “prophets.” They want people to tell them what to do in their daily lives. Instead, they should approach the Bible as one approaches another language. Jump in. Read regularly. The longer you live there, the easier it will be to recognize and understand God’s way of talking.

Just like learning a language, knowing God’s will is a lifelong learning process. You will never be completely fluent, but you will get better the longer you practice it.