Keeping Change

Just when you start to see God working in your life, we seem to go backwards and fall into some of the same routines and old habits. We start feeling and start doing some of the same attitudes, behaviors and choices. Change can be lasting and effective when you remember that the elements of growth are grace, truth and time. Grace and truth never change because God never changes.

Confess your distorted thinking: As we humble ourselves and confess with our mouths our inability, God releases His power into our lives. The Bible tells us “Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23:12.) Old habits fall away when you change the way you think. When you replace distorted thinking and wrong mindsets with right ones, you keep the victory.

Believe the power to change comes from God: With a willing heart, God shapes and molds us to the image of Jesus.  “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7.) The spirit of God is alive and within you, when you follow Jesus: “Now it is God who has made for us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2Corinthians 5:5.)

Believe God means what He says: God is in the changing business. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through Him, the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God, who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’ (2Corinthians 1:20-22.)

I will keep my hope in the Lord: The world and people are both good and bad, but God is good. My hope is not in the world but in what God has promised in His Word. I won’t let my past keep me from what God has for me today. Even though the world is crashing all around you, God’s presence and comfort is sufficient for your needs: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2Cor 4:17.)  

Believe it, think it, and say it: I refuse to replay my past mistakes. I believe God is at work in me to bring His lasting change in my life. I will use my thought life to imagine the promises of God coming to pass in my life. I will speak and pray the promises of God. He keeps me from falling backwards and empowers me to stand, in Jesus’ Name.