It's "deep thinkin" time (for me...maybe it just means...thinking..LOL). Thise week, i think God's theme for me is change; Life change, spiritual change( or,is the correct term "mortification"), relational change. The courage to "accept it", or more appropriately "not run from it".
It's happening anyway,isn't it? Not much my human...male..faulty self can do about it anyway...AS IF!!!! Anyways back to the subject of "change". God has used a few events of this past week to raise the subject in my heart/mind,and give it introspective consideration.
LAST FRIDAY night i took my daughters,Brooke and Alison, to a concert. It wasn't the concert that "rocked my world", rather the realization that my daughters are growing up fast now! How...seemingly overnight...they've gone from "tweeners", then "teeners"..to,now, just beautiful young women-to-be. So classy,and elegant..with hair and hearts of gold. They are changing, and i see it in them, and through them "in me", and..more importantly.."In HIM".
2nd Corinthians 5:17 comes into my heart.. " Therefore, if anyone is 'in Christ" he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come".
Yes, the NEW HAS COME, and is "ever coming". There's nothing i can do about it,except embrace it,and move ever-closer to it.
ALSO..this past Sunday..Yancey Arrington(my church's teaching pastor") gave an incredible message! One with the main point being "Belief Over Behavior". Often..as a single,twice-divorced man, i've felt( and feel) the stinging defeat he referenced. Defeat, in the form of one's inability to root out sin. My sins of lust,covetedness and idolitry..which are indwelling so deep,that i've felt discouraged time and time again,for not being able to reduce them on my own.
His sermon gave me hope on that subject, and made me understand..for the first time..that "change" comes most powerfully when we trust in God's "inward manifestations of change". The inward change that comes when we fully embrace what Jesus did on the cross, and how The Gospel changed me...even if,daily, i can't see it myself. Like it is written in the following scripture:
2nd Corinthians 4:18 " As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal"
So..i ask myself.. Do i want "transient change" or eternal? Like i really have a choice, what with God being the one in charge...not me!!!
Yes...Belief Over Behavior! It IS starting to make sense, and becomes more freeing..and strengthening...daily now. The more i "attempt" behavioral change, the more frustrated i get..but the more God solidifies my belief in Jesus restorative actions on the cross..the more i do change,from the inside out.
Change comes no matter what. Spiritual change in the form of growing faith and trust in my God,my maker, my Father. Trust in HIM, and what he is doing in my life. Relational change...not in the form of "relationships", rather how God is using me in the lives of others. I how i relate to, and he uses me to help..others. And...yes..visible change,too...as i sit here and look at a picture of my daughters and me 5 years ago, and one from this past weekend. I don't "visibly" see much change in myself, but by looking at them i see evidence of change. Visible...yet invisible.
Just like our faith. What a coincidence.
