This post too will be short and sweet. I have a test tomorrow morning in Abnormal Psychology which I have been studying for all day!
I wanted to write a little about the idea of growth. I used to believe that people couldn't change. I thought that the way that people were would be the way they always would be. A lot of this was due to the lack of change in the people as I grew up. What I have learned, by God's grace, is that people can change. Lasting change, however, is not done by the person themselves but rather by God's grace. This discovery really hit me Wednesday evening at my Counseling in Community training at my church. I was speaking to the group and telling about where I am in terms of my view of loving people who have hurt you. The way I was speaking and those things being so true in my heart showed me how much my love for Jesus and Jesus' love for me has changed me. Yes, I struggle with selfishness, pride, idolatry still and I know that I will for the rest of my life. It is not until I die that Jesus will be done sanctifying me and only then will I be changed into completeness. I can say though that I am so different from who I was even just a year ago and by God's grace alone I will be so different from who I am right now a year from now.
I do believe that people change but I believe that God himself makes that change and when it is Him, it is the most beautiful thing. It is lasting, and it is not only your behavior which changes but your heart and your mind. When you are changed by Jesus, it is not that you just don't say disrespectful things to a friend, it is that you have the supply of love from the Lord to love your friend so it wouldn't make sense to say rude things to them.
You will fail, Yes, and that is when grace is extended to you by Jesus and you have the opportunity to repent.
The next time you feel the need to change or the desire to change, first talk to the Jesus who came to this earth to save us from our sins which truly CHANGED everything.
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