Journey into Lightl

If we were honest, most of us don’t want to change. We may want the perks that change will bring, but we don’t want to go through the painful process to get them.

However, sometimes the status quo can be so painful that we are eager to do almost anything to change.

When I came into adulthood, I was in much pain. I didn’t like my game plan for living. My game plan was to get a good education, get a job, make lots of money, get married, have three children, do some good deeds and die. Somehow, I wanted life to have more meaning than that.

So, I went on a journey lasting six years until I found a good game plan. I chose to change my game plan, rather than endure a largely meaningless existence.

Why Change?

The main reason we need to change is that God has a game plan for each one of us to rescue us and change us into the wonderful person that he has designed us to be.

“Rescue us from what?” you may ask. In a word, to rescue us from “hell.”

But you may say, “I am rescued. I have accepted God’s free gift of going to heaven because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. Now, I am busy learning about God and trying to obey him.”

But are you changing? Are you becoming more like Jesus by being more loving, peaceful and joyous? Do you even want to change?

I think one of the great deceptions that Satan has fostered upon us Christians today is to dupe us into believing that if we just know about God we will be “magically” changed. Filling our head with facts about God gives us the illusion of growth but our heart knows that there is a big difference between knowing truth and living it.

I was shocked several years ago when I realized that despite trying to grow spiritually for over 35 years, I was still in bondage to many subtle sins like depending on achievement for worth and using other people’s opinion of me to form what I thought of myself. I should have been relying more on how God viewed me as expressed in the Bible. This awareness motivated me to change.

How to Do It

So, how do we change?

If God has not given you a hunger and thirst after righteousness, ask him for it. Satan is too clever for us and he offers many diversions off the main path of change. Only a God-fueled hunger will keep us from feeding off the false substitutes that are all around us.

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16).

Knowing the Bible is essential to changing. “Long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).  

But change only occurs in those of us who depend on the Word to live life. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14)

A third way to change is to embrace the hard times that are sure to come our way. Instead of cursing our luck for lousy circumstances, we need to be more like Jesus and look beyond the pain to the good God is doing in our difficulties (Hebrews 12:2).

God is relentless in stripping away good things that get in the way of relying on him. Good things like achievements, being liked by everybody, and always being strong. And when he does strip them away, it hurts!

He wants what is best for us. He wants to change us into the wonderful person he made us to be to reflect his greatness to world. And that takes a lot of change, even though he deeply loves, accepts, and respects us throughout the entire change process.

So, do you want to change?