You renew your mind with what God has already said is true, until your sense of yourself catches up with your actual identity. Feelings follow belief, not the other way around. You are not trying to become new; you are learning to agree that you already are.
The Grace Answer
There is often a gap between what God says you are and what you feel you are. He calls you righteous, accepted, new. You feel like a mess. That gap is not a sign the truth is false. It is the space where the renewing of the mind happens.
Paul told believers to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Notice the direction of change. You do not feel your way into a new identity. You already have the new identity, and you renew your thinking until your inner sense of yourself catches up with the facts. Belief comes first. Feelings follow, eventually.
Practically, how
Start by treating God’s word about you as more reliable than your mood. When you feel condemned, you go back to the verdict: no condemnation in Christ. When you feel like a failure at the core, you return to the fact: crucified with Christ, raised new. You are not manufacturing positive thinking. You are agreeing with reality against a feeling that is lying to you. This is not pretending you feel fine when you do not. You can be honest about real pain and still refuse to let it define you. Try it in three moves: name what you feel, name what God says is true, and let the truth be the louder voice, not by shouting an affirmation at yourself, but by returning to what He has actually said and done.
It helps to remember that a feeling is not a fact. Feeling condemned is not the same as being condemned. Feeling like a fraud is not the same as being one. The feelings are real as feelings, but they are not the verdict, and they do not get the final word over what God has already declared true of you. This is patient work, not a switch you flip. Old thought patterns were carved deep, and they do not vanish overnight. But every time you answer a lie with the truth of who you are in Christ, the groove of the truth gets a little deeper and the lie loses a little grip. Slowly, seeing yourself rightly stops being a struggle and starts being a default.
And here is the relief in it. You are not trying to become someone you are not. The new you is already real, already finished in Christ. Renewing your mind is simply the process of your self-image finally telling the truth. You are not climbing toward the identity. You are waking up to it.