Myth, 63

~ Anyone Can Change If They Want To ~

Popular Myth  ~  Our society has a common exhortation to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.  Have you ever tried?  Stand straight, bend over, grab your footwear and pull upward!  Were you successful? 

There have been literally thousands of books based on popular philosophy regarding self-improvement and gaining success.  Many contain successful principles (which align with the Bible) which by themselves do not change the core nature of a human being. 

The Apostle Paul  ~  “For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15-25).  

The Reality  ~  Notice that in the above passage the Apostle tells us the only solution is Jesus Christ as Lord of our life.  Only Christ can truly change your life.  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). 

The Process  ~  While some changes are instantaneous it is an on-going life long process.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (Corinthians 3:18).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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