Biblical Healthy Change.

               Biblical Healthy Change

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. Ellen Glasgow

We all realize that we need to change certain areas of our lives, but many of us are stuck and we don't know how to bring about good healthy change in our lives. 

Let me set the tone for today's post: You must understand that there is a vast difference between behavior modification change that is brought about by self will and human effort, and biblical Holy Spirit wrought change, and mind you, it is no small difference.

We as humans can change certain behaviors in our lives, we can go move from bad habits to good habits, and we can replace destructive behaviors with healthy behaviors. However, when we look at change in the Bible two thoughts appear evident, one, God gives us a new nature and new hearts (11 Cor.5:17; Ezek. 36:26). And the second thought flows from the first; all change in the life of the believer is not to make us better people, or better citizens, or better co-workers, or better neighbors, but all change for the Christian is for the "glory of God" (1Cor.10:31; Col.3: 17, 23).

Without being made a new creation (11 Cor. 5:17), without having a new heart (Ezek.36:26) we are left in our depraved sinful natures that are under the wrath of God (Eph.2:3).

The most important change that we need as a person is the change that is "from above"---this is the change that is accomplished by God in our lives through His word and by the work of the Holy Spirit. Then, as we move toward change, putting off the old nature and putting on the new nature, we can change, but not by sheer human will or behavior modification, no, but, by the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

Let me share a change that the Bible calls all married men to---it is to love their wives AS "Christ loved the Church (Eph.5:25). You notice that the word "as" is capitalized and in red, this should shout out to you that it is an extremely important two letter word in the Ephesians 5:25 passage. This passage calls for men to love their wives just as Christ loved His Church, and how much did Christ love the Church? --- that love took Him to Calvary to become a sacrifice, His love was a sacrificial love, a giving love, a selfless love, a pure love, yes, this is the kind of love that all men are being called to show towards their own wives. 

This kind of love (change) can not be produced by self-will, or human effort. This love can only be a reality when one is given a new heart.

So, to get back to the question, how do I change? Change must start by coming to Christ; acknowledging Him as LORD and following Him. When we are given new hearts we can bring about change in our lives; change that will happen with the aim to bring glory to our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. The follower of Jesus realizes that he must die daily and allow Christ to live through him. So all change is a cooperative work between the disciple and the master, but all the fruit of change is to God's glory and honor.

God requires that we walk in submission to Him.

Lets start this post with a summation of yesterdays thoughts on a rebellious attitude, remember we are all natural-born rebels against God, and we all have a natural tendency to resist God's will in our lives; this is the nature that we inherited from our father Adam (it is called the sin nature or original sin).

The attitude that we need to replace our rebellious attitude with is the attitude of submission. This is the put off - put on principle at work, this principle is one of the most necessary concepts to understand in the process of the sanctification of the believer.

It is important that I remind you that in order to submit to God you need to be a "new creation" ( 11 Cor. 5:17). We can not have a submissive attitude toward God that will be pleasing to Him unless we have been give new hearts (Ezekiel 31:26).

What does God require of us, well Micah 6:8 gives us the answer..."that you walk humbly with your God," this is the attitude that pleases God, he desires a heart that takes its place before Him in humble adoration. This is the whole of the christian journey, it is a constant struggle with the old Adam nature (sinful and rebellious) and submitting ourselves before our King.

Christian friend, be encouraged that God will work His will in your life; just be willing to allow that work to bear the fruit of a humble and submissive attitude that will bring glory and honor to His name.

We All Have a Rebellious Heart Towards God!

Our last and final attitude that we will deal with is the attitude of rebelliousness. So, lets list the negative attitudes that we have covered so far: a complaining attitude, a critical attitude, a covetous attitude, and a doubting attitude.

By now we all should be saying that we need an attitude adjustment!

 Now what is a rebellious attitude?

SAY IT IN A SENTENCE:

I was born with a rebellious heart that doesn't want to submit to the authority of God in my life, I want to be free and independent of God, free to do what I want to do when and how I want to do it.

A rebellious attitude exists in every human heart, in fact, you inherited your rebellious heart from Adam. Now my topic does not allow me to get into Pelagianism (a fifth century teaching that taught that each soul was directly created by God and thus man was born without a sinful nature), but Romans, 5:12-21, emphatically states that because of Adam’s sin, all of his descendants have been made sinners (rebels against God). 

 We all see that we have a rebellious attitude when we are confronted with the Bible's declaration that "all have sinned and come short of God's glory" (Rom. 3:23). If there was anything that ever shed light on our rebellious hearts, it is the teaching of the Bible that says we are sinners who are separated from God ( Rom. 5:12; Eph.2:3; 1john 1:8).

We need to see ourselves clearly; that is we need to see our true condition through the pages of Scripture, and I must admit it is not a good picture. We are in rebellion against the King of the universe, and it took the King to give us a new nature that is pleasing to Him, and that is what the Bible means for the call to be "born again."

In our next post we will examine the attitude of submission, it is the attitude that we need to "put on" to replace our rebellious attitude.

Only true biblical faith can replace a doubting attitude

Let's get back to the put on---put off principle---we need to replace our doubting attitude with an attitude of faith.

SAY IT IN A SENTENCE:

 Only when faith replaces doubt in the life of a believer can the joy of knowing God become a reality.

Remember faith is an attitude, and attitudes are patterns of thinking that form over a long period of time. We are faced each day with hundreds of decisions that will form the pattern of thinking that will eventually become our attitude.

James MacDonald gives a list of what faith is not in his book, Lord Change My Attitude Before It's Too Late, here are some of the thoughts by MacDonald:

• Faith is not an ostrich, head-in-the-sand and denying the obvious or the inevitable. It's not pretending that something is real when deep down you really don't believe it.
• Faith is not anti-intellectual, either. Faith is not a warm feeling that requires you to check your intellect at the door.
• Faith is not a stained-glass and dreamy sort of Little-house-on- the-prairie escapism.
• Faith is not some motivational seminar, with some high-powered guru calling for breathing exercises or self-confidence, telling you to picture a better future.
• Faith is not having a positive mental attitude, a you-have-to-keep-believing thing. It's not ignoring the pain and embracing optimism regardless of the evidence in from of you.

What is real, solid, biblical faith? Real, solid, biblical faith is rooted in a God who is real. Let' take the time to look at Hebrews 11:1. This passage gives us an excellent definition of faith:


"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."


Faith is substance: Faith is reality, substance, existence, faith imparts reality in the view of the mind to those things which are not seen.

Faith is evidence:  Faith gives us the eyes to see  the existence of God; of heaven; of angels; of the glories of the world suited for the redeemed.

This kind of faith is not self-manufactured, no, it is given by the Holy Spirit, it is from above---we need to humble ourselves before the sovereign God of the universe and ask that He would grant to us a real, solid, heavenly faith.

Listen to the Apostle John in 1 John 5:4, "This is the victory that overcomes the world ----," what is it? "our faith."

Brother and Sister in Christ, it is only true biblical faith that pleases God---do a check and see how your faith compares to Hebrews 11:1 faith.

What about a doubting attitude? Do you have one?

Wow, does the weekend fly by!
In our last post we discussed how we need to "put on" an attitude of love and "put off" a critical attitude.

 In today's blog we'll be looking at the dangers of carrying around an attitude of doubt.

SAY IT IN A SENTENCE:

Those who make doubting their lifestyle will spend their lifetimes in the wilderness.

Some may say that doubt is not an attitude, but oh yes, it is. James MacDonald in his book Lord Change My Attitude (BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE) describes doubt as " a lack of confidence or assurance that God will keep His promises."

We choose to trust what God says in the Bible, so both faith and trust are attitudes, and remember that attitudes are patterns of thinking that are formed over long periods of time. We want to develop attitudes of trust and confidence in the promises that God has given to us in His Word.

Go back to your Sunday School days and call to mind all of those who walked in faith, in addition recall all those who walked in doubt (remember Peter).

Be known as a man or woman of faith---allow God to remove those areas of doubt in your life---be with people who walk in faith---it does rub off, that is why the Bible tells us not to be with "bad company" for bad company can corrupt good character" ( 1 Cor. 15:33).

I must confess my own lack of trust and my own doubting attitude from time to time. Instead of praying about a circumstance or person my first natural inclination is to "fix it". This is certainly an area of my life that God has put his finger on more than once.

Child of God, believe all that God has said in His Word---those promise are for your comfort and edification; if a guest invites you over for a surf and turf dinner you would surely partake, so it is with all the riches in God's Word, come and partake in His faithful promises to you and to His Church.

An Attitude Of Love

Our last blog examined how a critical attitude can make us barren and separate us from people and from God. Today, we will look at the attitude that we need to "put on" to replace a critical attitude.

SAY IT IN A SENTENCE:

The only attitude big enough to replace a critical attitude is an attitude of love.

Think about most of your struggles in life and how you can connect those struggles to difficult people! Think about how you respond to those difficult irritating people! We respond with being critical, faultfinding, and we develop a negative attitude. 

It is this negative, critical, faultfinding attitude that needs to be replaced with an attitude of love. Now, keep in mind that this effort (putting on-putting off) requires the cooperative work of the Holy Spirit and you. This cooperative effort is found in Paul's letter to the Philippians, where he says,

 "...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2: 12-13).

Most of us only hear the "love chapter" 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings, but this is the heart of God for how we are to love people, let me post this love chapter for you:

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Here is an excerpt from the book "Lord Change My Attitude Before It's To Late, by James MacDonald:

"What we often mean when we say "I love you" is not, "I've made a commitment to place your needs above my own." Instead, we often mean, "I love what you do for me. You make me feel good. What you are doing right now is working for the person that I truly love the most, which is me." What we're really saying is, "I feel something." Aren't we saying, "You're making me feel something that I really enjoy feeling"? 

Christian friend, let me encourage you to go to God in prayer and ask that your heart be changed. We need to allow the truth from the "love chapter" to grip us and transform us. We need to understand love from God's perspective. The one thing that I've learned through my christian journey is that love is not an emotion---no, it is much stronger than emotion---it is active (sacrificial) and defined for us in the scriptures.

Just for clarification on emotion---emotion is a part of love, but it is not the essence of love. 

Criticism

Today's blog deals with replacing a critical attitude. Remember, we dealt with a complaining attitude a few blogs ago, do you remember the important difference between being critical and complaining? Well, let me give a quick refresher, complaining always deals with being negative toward circumstances, while being critical always deals with being negative toward people.

Here we go say this in a sentence: 

A continuously critical attitude toward those around me will consume all that is healthy and joy-producing in my life.

A farmer stood by the road one day and observed a large wagon filled with household goods moving toward him. Dust flew as the wagon pulled to a stop and the driver shouted, "We're  moving from Brownsville to Jonestown. How much farther is it?"

"About thirty miles, said the farmer.

"And what kind of people shall we expect to find there?" asked the traveler. 

"Well, what kind of people did you leave behind in Brownsville?"

"Oh, they were so negative and so cheerless, so deceptive and so ungrateful, just a godless bunch, all of them. That's the main reason we are moving. What kind of people will we find in Brownsville? 

" The very same kind, I'm sorry to say, said the farmer.

This story shows that if we carry a critical attitude in our hearts it won't matter where we go, all people will be the same---because a critical attitude perceives how we experience reality.

As James MacDonald puts it, "The way we look at a matter, the attitude that we choose, has a direct bearing on how we experience reality."

MacDonald asks if the reader is familiar with the words of Jesus that deals with a critical attitude? He points to Matthew 7:3, where Jesus says, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice that log that is in your own eye.?

Wow, we may be walking around with a log in our own eye (being critical of others), while at the same time we are  looking at the speck in someone else's eye.

MacDonald's definition of criticism really helps us to understand this ugly (sinful) attitude: Criticism is dwelling upon the perceived faults of another with no view to their good.

Christian, if you find yourself having harsh and negative opinions of others, if you find yourself quick to find fault with others, if you find yourself falling into criticism, there is hope! Go to God in prayer, confess to God your attitude of criticism. Then be aware of those times in your life when you are being critical---I always counsel others that we need to be "aware" of our blindsides before we can get into cooperation with God to make a change.