"You'll Never Change"

You have probably heard that lie, “You’ll never change”, about you in your life. Maybe from a parent or a coach or a teacher or even your pastor. You and I must discern between what is truth in our life and how the enemy lies to us about who we are. You and I must concede that God and his truth can and will set us free.

For several years, I was part of an American Civil War reenacting group called the Trans-Mississippi Rifles (that has nothing to do with gender identity, by the way). We were attached to the 3rd Louisiana infantry and “fought” for the South. Our U.S. Civil War pit us Americans against ourselves and for some reason we like to replay that.

We are spiritually in a civil war as well. We are fighting with who we are and whom God called us to be. Paul talks about his personal frustration with this civil war in Romans 7:15-19. You can just feel his frustration in the words he pens. “We don’t do what we want to do and the thing we don’t want to do, we do.” So how do we overcome this within ourselves?

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 that we demolish the stronghold Satan has on us by taking our thoughts captive for Jesus Christ. We make our thoughts and then actions obedient to Jesus. And when we take every thought captive, the walls will fall. For some reason, we believe Satan and God are equally matched but NOTHING is equal to the power of God’s love for us.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” In other words, protect what you think about or dwell on each and every day. Whatever you’re allowing into your thinking will direct your attitudes, emotions, and behavior. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 not to conform to the world’s way of thinking but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So to do this, I want you to think about a couple of things.

First, think process, not perfection. Becoming more like Jesus doesn’t happen overnight. But use this metric…am I different as a follower of Jesus than one year ago? Since the first of 2024? Have a changed any since summer began? You’ll want to do some investigation in yourself to see if you are growing spiritually. We’re all in process. Even the Apostle Paul says that in Philippians 3 about himself.

Now we are justified or found to be righteous the moment we say “yes” to Jesus. But sanctification or becoming more holy and like Jesus is a lifelong process. We are made right through Jesus immediately upon making him our Lord and Savior but our journey is a life-long process.

Secondly, think God’s power, not your own. That word “transform” in Romans 12:2 in the original Greek is in passive form meaning we don’t do it to ourselves, it’s done to us. There is power with filling our minds with Godly moments and thoughts.

One final point. Paul tells us something so important in regards to power. Our enemy, Satan, gets us so busy and distracted we forget about the power of God in our lives. But Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1:19-20, “I pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” Wow! That kind of power lives within you if you’ve said “yes” to Jesus.

Jesus came to set us free. He’s come to give you life. He’s come to empower you. He’s come to change you. And if you will let him, your life will never be the same again. Blessings on the journey.

You Can Fix It Yourself.

We live in a DIY world. Every Saturday, I try to watch at least one house flipping show because I love that kind of stuff. It’s reassuring to me that I can save tons of money on labor if I do the work myself. I typically look at a project and say, “I think I can do that myself.” We’ve all been saying that since we were 3 years old though.

But many times in our adult life when we say this, it really isn’t true. It’s the lie of pride that states I don’t need anyone else. We are desperate to cover up imperfection, hide mistakes, not admit fault or that we are even capable of doing something so we just say, “I can fix it myself.”

Sometimes the thing we are fixing is the person we are married to or our kids or our coworker. Sometimes we are fixing a financial situation, our marriage, an addiction, a health issue, a broken relationship or a secret sin. Here in the good ole USA, we pride ourselves on being individualists. We celebrate self-starters and self-sustainers. It’s our mentality to not include others because after all, I can fix it myself. And this idea has been around for a long, long time.

Sarah thought this when she and Abraham were past childbearing years in Genesis 16. God had told them they would have a baby and their offspring would be more than the stars in the sky. They were an old couple so Sarah gave her servant, Hagar, to Abraham thinking that’s how God will do it. I can fix this myself. Hagar and Abram had a child together. All the issues between Muslims and Jews and Muslims and Christians can be traced to Genesis 16 where one person decided they could fix the issue by themselves.

If we buy into this lie, I can fix it myself, several things happen to us in our lives. First it increases pride. “I don’t need anything else or anyone to help me.” I can do it on my own is inherently prideful. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be humble and part of a community. Pride goes before a fall so the Bible says.

When we believe this lie, it minimizes the problem saying it’s nothing I can’t handle. We end up usually making the situation worse than it ever was and to avoid embarrassment, we just say it’s no big deal.

It can also feed guilt and shame. Internally, we acknowledge the mess of our situation and the reality that I can’t really clean it up. I can’t put it back in the package like it was before. So I take on guilt and wear it like a bad suit. Carrying the guilt intensifies the fallout. We think, “I can’t believe I let it get this bad.” We typically realize this too late when our addictive personality keeps bringing us back to the porn site or the intake of alcohol or drugs.

This lie will rob us of relational intimacy. We are ashamed of our situation because we thought we could handle it so we are not vulnerable enough to admit we need help. It can be the reason we avoid being in a church small group or attending Sunday morning Bible class. However, when we decide to have relational intimacy, it makes the person we interact with feel valued and helps us feel known.

Finally, when we buy into the lie, it fuels hypocrisy. We dare not let anyone know how broken we are so we put on the mask and pretend all is right as rain.

As a follower of Christ, I realize the truth in Hebrews 4:14-16. Jesus is there for us. He carries the weight. He understands our dilemma. He gets us. Jesus is our high priest who has taken on our guilt and created a pathway to the very throne of God. And because Jesus is our high priest, we can appoach the throne of God with boldness. We don’t have to, indeed we literally cannot do it on our own. We need Jesus. And with Jesus comes the church.

None of us were ever meant to journey alone even though that’s what Satan wants. Jesus calls us to follow him, not to walk alone. The church is the body of Christ so being in the body means we are never alone. If you’ve bought into the lie that you can do it alone, I hope you’ll leave that idea behind and realize you have a high priest who wants to be your advocate, your rock and your soulmate for the journey. Grab his hand and leave the lie behind. Blessings on the journey.

You Don't Have What It Takes

You’ve probably heard this phrase sometime in your life. Maybe on a sports team or from a parent or in a classroom. Sometimes we hear that phrase, “You don’t have what it takes”, and it is not true. That’s typically the Devil lying to us and trying to tear us down.

Jesus told us in John 8 that Satan is a liar. In deed, it’s his native language. But in the same chapter of John, Jesus reminds us that Jesus is truth and the truth will set you free. Too many times, we believe the lie and are bound and shackled by Satan’s whispers rather than listening the the truth that Jesus wants us to hear and know.

And Satan has been at this deceiving thing for a while. You go all the way back to Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden and Satan is spinning his story to Eve. “You won’t really die but you’ll be as smart as God.” That’s what he told Eve and in that chapter, Eve believes the lie, eats the fruit and sin enters the world. That’s what Satan wants to do to us. Get us to believe the lie so that he can ruin our relationships with each other, ruin our relationship with God and break us. That is his goal.

We do this to each other as well through social media. We fall into comparison with each other and Satan whispers that we don’t have what it takes…we aren’t good enough…we are not worthy nor valuable. So we begin to work on ourselves by trying to be perfect so that none of this will be right.

But perfectionism is just not possible. It’s not attainable. The only way we can be perfect is through Jesus and even then, it’s Jesus, not us, that is perfect. But as we try and are unsuccessful at being perfect, we get angry. If we stay in that emotion long enough, we get frazzled, tired, and fatigued. Since we can’t handle that state of mind very long, we discover things we can escape with such as pouring ourselves into our work, or going to the gym every possible moment, or binging Netflix, or going to websites no Christian should be on. The enemy loves it when we buy into the lie so he can break us.

But this lie does have some truth to it. It’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is in Jesus, you have everything you need to accomplish all things in life! And Paul knew this. He states in Philippians 4:11-13, “…I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”

You can tell the enemy, “I may not have what it takes but I know the One who does.” His Name is Jesus. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. So be free from the pressure of culture and the lies. Jesus is your perfection. You don’t need to feel helpless. Jesus is your help. If you’re hurting, Jesus will heal. If you’re overwhelmed, Jesus will give you peace. If you’re lost, He wants to find you. Blessings on the journey.