Monday April 25, 2011

INTRO

Read Philippians 2:12

Do you want to be victorious in Christ day by day? Do you want to see those sinful habits, thoughts and actions disappear? Do you wan to be in step with the Holy Spirit day by day and have God use you mightily at work, at home and in your circle of friends? If you’ve answered a hearty “Yes” then be assured Change is Possible. Victory Can Be Yours.  If you’ve half heartedly shrugged your shoulders and thought something like, “I’m not sure, really” then you’ll continue to struggle with sin and lead a mediocre Christian existence.

As you begin to work through this series on Victorious Living make up your mind to be honest. Be honest with God and be honest with yourself. To date, you may have tried many remedies, many ‘try harder’ schemes, many different approaches to change and victory, but nothing has worked! You may have received much counsel, much wise advise, but again , to no avail. It’s quite possible that many of these helpful ministries have failed because you have failed to be honest, either with yourself or with God.

Let me encourage you to be honest with yourself. By this I mean look fairly and justly at yourself without over or under exaggerating. What ever the issue is you have to deal with, deal with it honestly. Stop justifying your behaviour. Cease explaining it away.  Pull down the barriers to change rather than accepting them or erecting them. Jack, for example, was always denying he had a problem with excessive abuse (with his wife, Jill). When confronted with his sinfulness he would always justify his actions - ’I wouldn’t have to yell at her if she didn’t….’.  According  to Jack his behaviour was justified by his wife’s behaviour. He couldn’t and wouldn’t change until he stopped this course of justifying his own actions. Jill, on the other hand, always refused to look honestly at herself. Every time she became the topic of conversation she put herself down. She constantly erected barriers (mainly within herself, but not always) that stopped her from loving and accepting herself. In reality, Jill had a wonderful personality, was rather attractive and smarter than the average bear.  But Jill refused to love herself. She built up barriers to stop the hurt of Jack’s constant tirade of verbal abuse. Jill could not and would not change until she stopped putting up barriers.

Let me also encourage you to be honest with God. It’s not as scary as it seems. God, for one, knows everything about you, what you do, where you do it and why. Read Psalm 139 and jot down on  a blank sheet of paper how much God knows about you. When you do something you are ashamed of, you don’t need to hide from God  You don’t need to pretend with God and try to manipulate or trick him. He knows it all. What He wants is honest, open confession and acceptance of His ongoing love and forgiveness.

Added to this, you need to decide once for all whether or not you really believe what God says in His Word. True belief is that kind of belief that changes our actions. If I truly believe that my house will fall down in the storm I will take my family to safety. If it’s just a passing thought or a half hearted belief, I will do nothing for my family. True belief is that kind of belief that changes our actions. Before you read any further, answer the  questions below. Write down the answer. Be honest and open with yourself and with God. If you are afraid of someone seeing your answers, write them down on a separate sheet of paper and hide the sheet. But I ask you to write down the answers so that you are forced to think about what you really believe.

SURVEY

1/. Do you believe that God’s Word is true for you? Why/Why not?

2/. Do you believe that the promises in the Bible apply to you personally? Why or why not?

3/. Do you feel loved by God? Why or why not?

4/. How do you know that God loves you?

5/. What is making you feel unloved by God?

6/. If God were to write a sentence about you, what would He write?

7/. I am struggling with....

8/. Describe how you would like to be.

9/. What things are, or have been, stopping you from changing?

10/. What fears do you have about changing?