Metanoia

I was just about to give up this morning when I came to this passage and it just stopped me in my tracks.  I started reading in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 but took all the way to chapter 7 to get Rhema. 

2 Cor. 7:10 To 1anchor one’s thoughts in God’s thoughts when faced with difficult or painful experiences, brings escape from sorrow and leaves one with no 2regrets; but oh, what a dreadful contrast is the world system (of the law of karma and works) which adds 2regret upon sorrow! Whereas the one brings such immediate relief, the other seems to be an inescapable deathtrap! (The word 1metanoia means to gather one’s thoughts; in this context it means to realize God’s thoughts. Sadly the Latin word, penance (repentance) became the popular English translation of metanoia. The word 2metamelētos, means with regret.)

Could this mean that when you are going through a difficult situation.  You know without any doubt that you have turned it completely over to God.   The situation doesn't turn out the way you expected, but still have total complete peace knowing that what happened was God's Will and not your own.

Could it mean when you're going through that difficult situation that you need to take those thoughts captive and push out the negativity whether it has to do with a business deal gone bad,  a death in the family,  a huge fight with your spouse.   You put in your own circumstance here


The word metanoia is a very powerful Greek word.  The mirror Bible expands on this word and its meaning

Consider the word metanoia, consisting of two components, meta, together with, and nous, mind, suggesting a radical mind shift. This word has been translated regularly as “repentance,” which is an old English word borrowed from the Latin, which means penance. Then they added the “re” to get even more mileage out of sin consciousness. Re-penance. This gross deception led to the perverted doctrines of indulgences, where naive, ignorant people were led to believe that they needed to purchase favor from an angry god. Most cathedrals as well as many ministries were funded with this guilt money. English translations do little to help us understand what repentance truly is. Until Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation, the word metanoia was commonly used. For instance, Tertullian wrote in 198 A.D., “In Greek, metanoia is not a confession of sins but a change of mind.” But despite this the Latin fathers begin to translate the word as “do penance” following the Roman Catholic teaching on doing penance in order to win God’s favor. In 1430, Lorenzo Valla, a Catholic theologian, began a critical study of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and Valla pointed out many mistakes that Jerome had made. Sadly, the “Vulgate-Only” crowd of Valla’s day forced him to renounce many of the changes that he noted needed changing in the Vulgate including the poor translation of metanoia. The business of religion desperately needs paying and returning customers. Jesus was crucified for this reason; the entire system of keeping people dependent on their hierarchy was challenged and condemned by him. Isaiah 55:8-11 gives meaning to metanoia: “your thoughts were distanced from God’s thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth, but just like the rain and the snow would cancel that distance and saturate the soil to awaken its seed, so shall my word be that proceeds from my mouth.” The Greek preposition meta, together with, implies another influence. This is where the gospel becomes so powerful since it appeals to our conscience to reason together with our original design ... the authentic thought, the mind of God is realized again. The distance caused by Adam’s fall, compared to the distance between heaven and earth, is cancelled in the incarnation. Metanoia suggests a co-knowing with God! It is an intertwining of thought; it is to agree with God about me. Your belief in God does not define him; his faith in what he knows to be true about you defines you. In Mark 11:22, Jesus says, “Have the faith of God.” Unfortunately, most translations say, “Have faith in God.” There is a massive difference between our beliefs and philosophies about God and God’s persuasion about us! God’s belief in you gives substance to your faith. Jesus is what God believes about you. If our point of departure is not God’s faith in the finished work of Christ we have no valid gospel to preach. If our faith is not sourced and sustained in him as the mirror image of God revealed and redeemed in us we are deceiving ourselves with yet another religious disguise called Christianity.