Finding Real Change

September 26, 2018

Do you think it’s possible to find real change in your life? Are you wondering if true transformation is only a myth? Our culture seems to have this insatiable appetite for self-help and improvement. Unfortunately, it’s left us with too many quick substitutes that rarely deliver genuine change.  

Real change is possible. But you won’t find it on the shelves of the bookstore or in the check-out line at the grocery store. Rather, we must open the Bible and see what it has to say. Paul writes it this way:

…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

To find real change we must:

1. Put Off the Old

What area do you want to see change in? Where are you struggling? What hurt, habit or hang-up is it that you want to shed? Let it go! You’ve got to drop it like a hot potato. Imagine you go to a department store to buy a new coat. You find one and you take it into one of those little changing rooms. You don’t go in there and put on the new coat over the old one. It will never fit that way. You’ve got to take the old one off first.  If you want to see the new in your life you’ve got to be willing to part ways with the old. If you are determined to drop 20 pounds but you have a friend that keeps bringing you Blue Bell, change the locks on your doors. If you are striving to honor God with your body but you’re dating someone who keeps pushing you to do things you know you shouldn’t do, throw that fish back in the sea.

2. Change the Way You Think

You just bought a new coat! You’re no longer thinking about the old one. You only have thoughts about how good you are going to look in the new one. If you want to find real change in your life, stop thinking about the old and begin reflecting on the new. Mediate on what God says about you rather than what the world wants you to believe. Don’t live into that lie that was said over you years ago. Stop living in the addictive or victim mentality that you are living in.Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative.Paul says in another place that we keep from conforming to the ways of this world by changing the way we think (Romans 12:1-2).

3. Put On the New

Wear your new coat and wear it proudly! It may take some getting used to. It probably doesn’t fit exactly like your old one did. The pockets are in different places. But it has some things that are newer and better than your old coat. That’s why you bought it! So wear it. Live into your new.  

Do you want to see real change in your life?

  • What old things do you need to let go of?
  • Where do you need to change the way you think?
  • What new things do you need to begin wearing?

Ryan Smallwood

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