Changed Behavior Requires God’s Help
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I’ve gone round and round with God on this one. Repentance, or change, requires me to make a choice to stop the wrong I’m doing and go in the opposite direction. Thus, it requires me to be actively involved in doing something. It means I must take responsibility for my life and make the difficult change.
However, at the same time we are taught that God is there to help us. God is supposed to give us strength to withstand the temptation. God is supposed to give us faith. God is supposed to deliver us from evil.
God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief. (Mark 9:24)
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)
I read these scriptures and I pray, with as much faith as I can, for God to help me withstand temptation, to make needed changes in my life. I want to please God, but to do so, I need God’s help. If I truly need God’s help to change, am I doing it or is God doing it? And if God is doing it, can I say I have changed? Whenever I’m successful in changing something in my life that needs change, I can never really say I did it.
Then, I have the dilemma of dealing with those times in my life where I struggle to bring change and nothing seems to work. I say the same prayers. Ask for the same help. Yet, I continue to struggle with the same sin. Is God not helping out like God does at other times? Or is change really about me and what I do without God’s help?
God and I go round and round. I don’t know that I have the solution to this except to say that change, real change in our lives, requires both. I need God to help me, to give me strength and guide me through temptation. At the same time, I need to make conscious choices every day to do the difficult depth work and to choose to live differently.
When I’m helping my children change something in their lives, I can point out the wrong (sometimes they are receptive to that; sometimes they are not), I can model for them how to live more rightly, I can encourage them along the way, and I can point out situations they need to avoid.
Ultimately, however, I cannot bring change to my children’s lives. They must do that. They must see the wrong in their lives and choose to deal with it. They must struggle with the inward tendencies and “demons” to figure out what causes them to want to do what they have been doing. They must choose to make different choices.
It is the same with us. God is there to help me. God points out my sin. God gives me encouragement and points out the pitfalls I need to avoid. I please God when I humble myself enough to hear these things. Then, I please God further by choosing to follow God’s direction and advice, and by doing what ever it takes to change.
I saw a movie recently in which a young bride confronted her troubled husband with these words. “God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.”
Thank you, God, that you care enough about me to help me change. It is my hope that I will please you with the positive changes I make in my life for you.
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