Substitute

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Jude 1:24-25

Let your need match your desire.  

You need Jesus in your life more than you need air in your lunges, more than you need food in your belly, and more than you need shoes on your feet. You would not walk outside on a cold day without shoes on your feet, and you would not walk by a pantry full of food if you are hungry. Your need to be faultless and to not stumble is far greater than your need to be warm and filled. God alone can keep you from stumbling. Make sure that you desire Him more than you desire warmth or food. Everyone will come before the presence of the glory of our God and Savior. You will either be found faultless and receive exceeding joy or you will stumble and fall. You are not righteous enough to be faultless; you are not stable enough to stand in God’s presence. You have a great need for a substitute to stand in your place. You should desire His substitute as much as you need it.

Renewing the mind is not a one-and-done thing.

In as much as you need to be faultless, you also need to have your mind renewed. The mind is not something you can change all at once. You have to let Him substitute His thoughts for your thoughts, and as you let Him renew your mind, you will gain confidence and boldness in knowing the truth. 

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

No matter how educated or uneducated you are, the more time you spend with Jesus, the more your His thoughts will substitute for your thoughts and your mind will grow in wisdom and knowledge. As you “bring every thought into captivity” (2 Corinthians 10:5), you can slowly substitute God’s thoughts for each of your thoughts.

Open your closets to God.

You may want a clean house, but if you have a hidden closet that is attracting ants, your house will be filled with ants. As you grow in your relationship with Christ, you will let Him substitute His cleanness for your dirtiness. You have to let Him substitute His cleanness in every room and closet in your house, or you will still be unclean. When you open you invite God to substitute His faultlessness for your life, you have to let Him do so in every part of your life. As you slowly let Him move through all the parts of your mind, substituting His thoughts for yours, you begin to put on the mind of Christ. Establishing a Christ-like mind will trickle down to the rest of your life. When you substitute His mind for yours, you will also substitute His desires for yours. You will discover that you need His strength to substitute for your weakness more than anything else.