> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.walkinginthequietlight.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Let Him Turn the Dial - URL: https://www.walkinginthequietlight.com/let-him-turn-the-dial/ - Published: 2026-09-11T01:00:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T01:00:34.000Z - Description: One August morning, half-awake, I watched a hand turn a radio dial — and finally understood how Romans 12 works. The renewing of the mind isn’t a task we perform; it’s a retuning we receive. - Author: Marin A. Welles - Tags: Equipping / Practical Faith, #chrono19, #renewingthemind This August morning, I lay in bed for a few moments after waking up, trying to decide if I would fall back to sleep or if I should go ahead and get out of bed. My thoughts were gently meandering over recent events when I recalled an inner dialogue with God about someone I know who was wrestling with something new to them. Loss. It had hit him like a flood; a trusted figure who turned out otherwise, financial ground he’d counted on giving way, the loss of pride as job application after job application was met with no response, and a serious relationship ending, all arriving at once on the threshold of adult life. Each one dealing a heavy emotional blow. Those of us who know him understand this as a season of trial for the young man. Everyone goes through struggles on their way to becoming who they are. We had been through it ourselves and couldn’t help but feel the familiar pain of the unbearable lows he was now wrestling with. How he couldn’t possibly understand the “why” of it all right in the midst of it. We prayed with him. We slipped gentle counsel in where we could, at times when he was not prone to closing off and burying himself away from others, food, and the world. [The Spirit brought Paul’s words to mind](https://www.walkinginthequietlight.com/he-speaks-quiet-power-into-your-everyday-faith/), > “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NIV) Ah yes. The pruning of our old self so our true self, who we are meant to be, can spring forth. That is what this valley seems to be for the young man. The Lord has a plan for him, and now it’s time to get down to the business of [walking *with* God rather than *near* him](https://www.walkinginthequietlight.com/the-slow-education-of-listening/). I asked the Lord to help me understand how this “renewing of the mind” really takes place. Is this something we must work at earnestly, and if so, how? Or, is this something He does to us? Though the verses from Romans were familiar, I began to see a metaphor I’d never connected to this scripture before. It was as if I were watching a hand turn the tuning dial of a radio. And as my mind searched the meaning in the message, understanding of how this applied to life was opened to me as if stepping from one diagonal stone in the path to another. Between each step, I would pause to test and take in the new depth of the metaphor’s expression at each stone on which I stood. Here is what my journal recorded on that morning. > We can allow God to turn the dial and adjust the radio frequency of our mind so the signal we receive is completely different from what we have been receiving all along. This allows us to broadcast a new, more beautiful song. One that plays in harmony with what is beautiful and good in the world around us; and thereby abandoning the songs of discord and mis-melody that clash with the beauty and amplify dissonance in the world surrounding us. Perhaps the most important point to note: God’s hand turns the dial. ‘Renew your mind’ isn’t a task to perform. It’s an offer to receive. Let Him make the new tuning; your part is to accept the change. The newly dialed in station is a different radio frequency. It is a new channeled flow of information, inclination, belief and perhaps emotion. We often speak of God’s love and grace flowing through us to others. There’s a connection here. The outflow of this new radio station is harmony and beauty unlike anything other tunings produce. The song that broadcasts is wholly new and exudes the love and beauty as an exact representation of the frequency that entered from God. But how? There’s a real tension here — we want something to do, when the doing isn’t ours. We have the paradox of wanting to do something when there’s no doing by us to make it happen. Still, there *is* something to be done to receive this “retuning.” While we are not capable in ourselves of changing of how our mind thinks, we are able to do what invites God’s hand to make the change in us. And it all revolves around building the relationship you have with God. **First, ask Him.** Pray and tell God what this is you want to receive and ask for His grace to receive it. Matthew records the words, > “Or who is there among you who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11 WEB) God is a good father who gives to His children the good things stored up for them. The renewal of your mind is just one of these things He is ready and willing to give if you’ll ask. **Second, obedience.** What are the things He has already called you to do? A child obeys their father. Carry out what He has already asked of you. Lay down your sins and take up His cross daily, and carry it out. **Third, study.** Study what is good and true and perfect. Be in the Word of God daily. Absorb His teachings and reflect on how to emulate Him. Keeping your head in the mindset of God will give you the structure He will use to reshape your thoughts. The fruit of the new radio station is varied, and some of the sweetest of that fruit is lightness and peace with which you operate daily. Let Him retune your radio so you can experience the “life abundant” He promises in John. > “The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10 WEB) Retuning your radio moves you from the stations managed by the thief to the station offered freely by the giver of life. Choose to be renewed. --- *Scripture quotation taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.*