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Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes
There is a saying...'old habits never die'. Some of our 'old ways' are hard to destroy, kill and bury. We live knowing that we need to change but our 'old way' ends up destroying, killing and burying us. What's that all about? I have been a Christian all my life but I have a weakness that practically takes the 'best' out of me. What is my 'best' anyway? Sometimes this weakness distorts what my 'best' looks like. Like the mirror at the fun house in the carnival...my best is shaped and twisted in a way that I lose face and focus on what I really look like. More than that...I lose my true understanding and assurance of Whom I belong to.
I know deep in my soul that nothing changes if nothing changes. If I don't make an attempt to change, then nothing will change. My surrounding will be the same. Circumstances are 'status quo'. People around me won't budge. Why should they? They sense and see the 'old' me and their reaction to my action and their action to my reaction becomes the same ol' same ol'. Sad thing is that I KNOW BETTER. I can't help but recall the verses Paul writes in Romans 7:14-20:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Honestly, I really hate doing the same thing over and over again. I say I am going to stop. I try for a little while. Then the while distorts with confusion. The confusion distorts with doubt. Then doubt is twisted with some fear and worry. And fear and worry? Well let me just say that when those two (fear and worry) take residence in me, I fail at my attempted change. Now I am back to square one...trying to do the right thing again. I have tried ways to overcome my weakness. I have gone to my prayer closet and prayed, read God's Word and sought HIS direction. I have "let go and LET GOD". I have "peace be still'. I have even fasted. Nothing seems to work. My mind is a battlefield. It takes charge of me. I want to control it...but I can't. It controls me. The good I started out doing I cannot do. The bad I didn't intend to do...I DID. Nothing changed! So??? NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
The enemy likes to attack through the mind. The mind can make all the other members of our body do either good or evil (bad). You see...the enemy knows what our weakness is and he will attack there. All he has to do is whisper things in our ear...we hear it, process it, and our mind reacts and/or acts upon it. We cannot outsmart the devil, but we can STOP him SHORT on his tracks. We must realize that temptation is not from GOD. No one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does HE tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:13-15 If we want change we must start at the root. The root of the problem is our mind. The enemy wants to control us through our mind. Our mind will create evil desires that drag us away and entice us. These desires birth sin and mature sin births death. Is there any hope for me...for us? Sure there is. We need to surrender our mind to GOD. Start there! Personally speaking...I must realize that as a man thinks so is he (Proverbs 23:7). I must change my thought. After all, the Spirit of GOD lives in me and I have the mind of Christ. I have to rid fresh (self) long enough to hear HIS thoughts, record them and act and react upon them.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:10-16
I can change! I will change! I will start with surrender. I have surrendered my life and my will to GOD. It's time to totally and completely surrender my mind. I am going to start 'one day at a time'. Perhaps even 'an hour at a time' or even 'a minute at a time'. Whatever it takes to change...I will change. As soon as the thought enters my mind...I will stop it and replace it with scripture...GOD'S WORD. As soon as I hear words whispered in my ear that is not of or from GOD...I will sing a praise...I will shout a prayer! As soon as I feel my thoughts controlling me, I will let GOD control it by calling upon HIS name! I will hold on to HIS SPIRIT THAT LIVES IN ME so that I can change! After all...NOTHING CHANGES IF NOTHING CHANGES.
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