Week 3:
Change
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will
cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move
you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my law” – Ezekiel 36: 25-27
Once God has
ahold of our lives, there is a change that takes place within us that can only come
from Him. A change and healing that is so exhaustive, that as long as we keep
our eyes on Him, no matter where we have come from – there is no going back.
The gospels
are filled with incredible stories of Christ healing people. Physical healing,
spiritual healing, emotional healing, mental healing…with God – the miracles
are boundless. The touch of His hand (Matthew 9:27-30), the brush of His cloak
(Mark 6:56), believers obeying a simple order (Luke 17:14), Christ’s power to
heal is unmistakable. And though the act itself might be discreet at times, His
ability to change people’s lives forever is far from subtle.
But the
healing of physical needs is not where it ends. God has shown His undeniable
mercy by bringing those that persecute Him to the ground and healing their
hatred towards Him (Paul – Acts 9). He shows His ability to offer enough
restoration that is equivalent to the number of our doubts (Peter – John 21).
When we are weak – He is strong. When we are afraid – He is comfort. When we
are lost – He is the lamp that guides us. And when we are broken – He is the
healer that turns our “mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:11). And He is standing
here all the while, proclaiming; “I am the Lord, the God of all people. Nothing is too difficult for me”
(Jeremiah 32:27).
How are we, as Christians, different from
non-believers?
How has God
changed us?
When God
saves us, He doesn’t just cleanse us from our sins and then leave us to fend
for ourselves. He shows us what we
need to change in our lives and He tells us how
to change.
Ask God to
show you what needs to be changed in your life:
Psalm 139:23 “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious
thoughts.”
This
is me assuming that you, the reader, know you were created and that you have a
Creator and that you know that your Creator is God. When we have car troubles –
we take our car to a mechanic. When we have plumbing problems, we call a
plumber. We know that the only people who can fix these problems – are the ones
who understand HOW these things were created. So when we, ourselves, have
problems – we need to go to the One who created us – God.
After God tells us what we need to change –
we need to work towards changing it immediately!
Ephesians 4:17-24 “So I
tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as
the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their
understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity,
they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of
impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you
learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with
regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being
corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude
of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness.”
When
we “put off” our “old self” and “put on” our “new self” – we are replacing what we used to be with what Christ has made us into now.
When we get rid of something – we have to
replace it with something else.
Colossians 3:8-10 – “But
now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage,
malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other,
since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the
new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
1
Timothy 6:10,11: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some
people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves
with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee
from all this, and pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
2
Timothy 2:22: “Flee the evil desires
of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who
call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things.”
If you are like me – you are super insecure.
You can wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast and be on your way to work, all
without realizing that you have already probably thought about at least 100
things that you are worried about or insecure about. And you don’t even realize
it. But these insecurities are your downfall. They are what keeps you from
believing that TRUE CHANGE IS POSSIBLE! So go to your Creator and takes these
lies and leave them as His feet and pick up His TRUTHS.
Replacing the false truths with God’s TRUTH!
Change does not happen over night – but the
decision to allow God to take control and change us, should be done
instantaneously. And once we have given Him control – we should never look
back.
When I was in college – one of my friends
spoke in chapel one day at school and something he said, I will never forget:
“When you are in sin and know you need to change – drop what you are doing –
make a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction and RUN. Run without looking
back.” His words stuck in my mind for years…and I still recall them from time
to time when life seems to be closing in on me.
2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
the new creation has come: The
old has gone, the new is here!”
This does not
mean that we will not still have struggles. But that we need to discipline
ourselves – Picking up our cross DAILY (Luke 9:23) and following Christ.
Don’t be afraid
of true struggles that God is using to make you better:
James
1:2-4 “Consider it
pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many
kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not
lacking anything.”
We need to be aware of our struggles and
identify them. And instead of being consumed by them, we need to give them to
God.
After my crazy relationship I had A LOT of
struggles. I had a lot of pride. Before this relationship I had struggled with
insecurities of being a girl who wanted what she wanted when she wanted and
hated when anyone questioned her. So being in a relationship where I always had
to give a reason for every single action of mine, only enhanced that pride and
need-of-control a hundredfold. And after that relationship ended it took me a
long time to learn that when people asked me what I was doing – was truly just
a simple question and wasn’t meant to be controlling.
A few months after my relationship ended I
was out shopping with a friend of mine. I saw these boots that I reeeaaaaallly
wanted and I had wanted them for a long time.
“Do you really NEED to be spending money on
those?”
I flipped. I was so furious. My friends
simple, friendly concern about wanting me to be responsible with my money – was
taken as anything BUT a friendly concern by me. My automatic response and go-to
feeling was to accuse him of being controlling and manipulative. When I finally
gave myself the chance to calm down – my mind became clear and I realized that
my friend was just being a friend – and my attitude was only part of the
remaining hurt that I had gone through. I had to learn how to be a friend again
and how to allow people to my friends again. I had to replace my fear of being
controlled with love. I had to replace the thoughts of “everyone just wants to
control me” with the knowledge that “everyone just wants to be the best of
friend to me” – It took a long time to learn – but with time and God – I
overcame it.
Another example: When I was in that
relationship, I learned to lie. A lot. Even if it wasn’t something that I
“needed” to lie about. Because when I told the truth – it was never accepted
for what it was. Like when my mom would call and I would answer so it made me
take too long to get ready and go meet him – and instead of be being able to
say that my mom called (because he would FLIP if I ever talked to my mom
because everyone “was against us” and “hated him” [which – in fairness was all
true…but be only brought it on himself]) so instead of being able to tell him I
was talking to my mom – I would have to say something dumb like “I had to get
my laundry” or “I couldn’t find my keys” but that was the life I had grown use
to…and of course I would have delete the phone call on my phone because he kept
a close account on that too. A few months after my relationship ended I was on
my way to meet a friend after work to go shopping and my mom called. My friend
had tried calling me to see where I was and I don’t even remember what I told
her – but I know it was a lie. For some reason I had this intense fear of
telling her that I was on the phone with my mom…because I had allowed myself to
be conditioned that talking to my mom was bad. I felt horrible – and this was
one the first times I realized just how much the relationship with my ex had
affected me. And how there were going to be things I was going to have to work
hard on and that I needed healing I never even thought I would need. I
apologized to my friend about lying and she was cool about it. Because she
understood that I needed healing too.
Self-awareness
vs. Christ-awareness
If I only search for my self in me – I will only find sin.
How God sees us:
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of
him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
*We are God’s children (Galatians 3:6)
*We are each a part of the body of Christ (1
Corinthians 12:27)
“We can tell that we are listening
constructively when God’s Word begins to change how we see ourselves and how we
see other people.” – Max Lucado
I remember
sitting in my apartment one night by myself watching So You Think You Can Dance. A song came on and I just fell apart.
So much of me had been aching for so long. My ex had moved along to someone new
already and there I was sitting in my apartment still devastated from the pain
he had caused me. I didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel…
“Why can’t I
just get over this!” I cried out to God.
“Because you’re
not supposed to.”
It was like I
heard His voice as loud and clear as if He were sitting right next to me,
holding me. When we sin – there are consequences and sometimes those
consequences really suck. But they’re necessary. When we give so much of
ourselves to someone or something knowing it’s NOT RIGHT – there are
repercussions. There is hurt. Community and relationships are a beautiful
beautiful part of God’s creation and design. But when we misuse and abuse them
– there are deadly and painful consequences. I knew what I was feeling was just
one of those consequences. And I knew that no matter how much I wanted to just
skip the whole “hurting” phase – it was inescapable if I wanted TRUE healing.
And it was completely necessary. But I knew I wasn’t alone in the process. God
was right there holding my hand. He was letting me hurt but He wasn’t LEAVING
me to my hurt. I had made some horrible decisions – and it was time I allowed
them to catch up with me. I couldn’t just “get over” what had happened because
God designed life in a way that doesn’t allow us to just “get over” where sin
is involved. And I had a lot of sin.
- We cannot change by ignoring what is going
on – we can only change by giving it completely to God
- We need to continually pray that God will
make us aware of Christ in us –
Keep turning
to God because if we try to do it on our own – we will just fall back into self-reliance.
- If we don’t replace false truths with God’s
truth then we will never move forward.
Being told want to do – “They’re telling
me what to do because they want to control me” vs. “they are trying to help
give me advice because they care about me”
What am I doing “they think I’m doing
something wrong” vs ”they’re just asking a simple question.”
We are FREE in Christ!
We have a CHOICE to no longer be defeated by our struggles!!!
Romans 6:1-7 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go
on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those
who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that
all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were
therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know
that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be
done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set
free from sin”
Psalm 40:3 - “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise
to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.”
Revelation
1:5: “ and from Jesus
Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler
of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins
by his blood”
Galatians 5:16,17: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you
will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is
contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are
in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
I definitely
felt overwhelmed at times – like I was never going to get better. I developed
the mentality of NEVER wanting to be in a relationship again – because I didn’t
believe I could handle it. I looked at my past relationships with guys and saw
how insecure I was. I never wanted to be controlled again – but also – I knew I
wasn’t mature enough to be who I needed to be in a relationship. I wasn’t
mature enough to put God before anyone else. I didn’t know how to keep Him the
center of the relationship. I didn’t know how to put my faith in Him instead of
man. I didn’t know how to keep Him as my main priority and look to Him and ONLY
Him for my security. I was too use to replacing God with boys. And I knew I
needed to change. I felt like I had
gone too far and messed up too much. I knew change was possible –
but I wasn’t so sure it was possible for me. It was hard to believe – but I had
to. I had to give it all to God and allow him to change every part of me –
especially my thoughts and doubts.
Think about it…
What are ways that we can allow Satan to keep us from moving
forward?
What are ways that we can keep ourselves from moving forward?
“The good news of the gospel of Christ affects the whole person.
It’s not a set of rules to outwardly follow, but a change deep within that
leads to a difference in our behavior. The effects of the gospel in our lives
can be seen by a continual process of inward transformation and then outward
actions that honors God. God’s Word frees us to live in truth, and his Spirit
gives us the power to live it out.” – Max Lucado
