From BobHamp.com

Steering our soul through life is difficult without a map to guide us. Regret, frustration, tedious attempts at transformation, all these obstacles can seem to be the rule and not the exception. Though I usually resist formulas, I want to describe here how our will functions, so we can most effectively begin to alter our experience.

Here is the path:

Perception > Desire > Choice > Action > Experience > Impact

Don’t read over this too fast. Look at it again. The advertising companies understand this as a science. We act and experience based on our desires but our desires come from our perceptions. If we want to change a person’s action, we begin by discovering their desires. But hidden below their desires is perception: the thing that drives us all. (see Alan Smith’s Blog).

For real and lasting life change, we must begin to examine our perceptions. (also see earlier post; Ways of Seeing: Contact lenses and Sausage machines). If I want to affect your behavior I must get you to see in a new way. The Bible calls this “repentance”. This does not mean feeling bad enough to change, it means seeing in a new way.

Something appears desirable, my desire engages, I decide and then act. Once I have acted, this begins to shape my experience, and then it shapes how others experience me. It can also affect how others experience themselves around me.

If I see everything through the eyes that my life experiences have given me, it is possible, even likely that I will reproduce my life experiences. Is it possible to have new eyes?

Every day, I pray this: “God open up the eyes in my heart and give me Your Spirit which allows me to see differently, if you do, then I can see and know (experience) the amazing things you have done, are doing, and continue to do in and around me.”

If that sounds like a clever prayer, I cannot take credit for it. Paul prayed this very thing for the young church at Ephesus. Try it on today, it looks good on you.

You can know the Truth… and guess what it will do for you?

I was having lunch the other day with a friend of mine who has recently been struggling through some issues with his oldest child. The teenager had become quite rebellious, even to the point of having run-ins with the law.

I asked my friend what he’s been doing to try to get his son back on track. He said something that has been stuck in my head for days now. He said, “It’s not about just changing behavior, although that can help. And, it’s not about changing the environment, which can also help. Rather, it’s about changing the heart. Changing behavior and environment may last for a season, but a heart change is what he needs.”

The next morning in my quiet time, I started to dissect this concept a bit more. I’ve been struggling through some personal issues in my own life that have plagued me for years. These patterns of behavior have been so hard to break. So, my friend’s words hit me pretty hard. I’ve spent most of my Christian life fighting, wrestling and struggling to change certain behaviors, but with only slight improvement. I’m weary of the cyclic reemergence of these destructive patterns. It’s been terribly frustrating.

As I was thinking through this, I started to dig a bit deeper into the heart. I know that as we come to know Christ, we are given a new heart with new desires and new motivations.

“I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart” (Ezekiel 36:26).

“What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As I was talking to God about this, he started to clarify this more:

Son, your heart has been changed. If it hadn’t, you wouldn’t be able to hear me so clearly. So, know that your heart is right. Your heart is good.

It’s your flesh and mind that need renewing. You’ve settled into your old routines, and the way your flesh is wired is that it’s an easy escape. It’s not your heart. If it was your heart, son, you wouldn’t care. But, you do.

Ahh, now that makes sense. My heart was changed when I received Christ. My desires and motivations are towards God. If my heart had not been changed, I wouldn’t care about doing right and fixing some of these issues in my life. But, I do care. I do want this. Then, I remembered a couple scriptures:

“Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness–righteous, holy, and true.” Ephesians 4:21-24.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” Romans 12:2.

This last one from Romans 12:2 really hit me. It gave very specific instructions on how to be transformed. Did you catch it? It’s not hard. You simply “Let God…”

That’s it. That’s all the work you need to do. Just let God. It’s not your responsibility to change the way you think and behave. That can be hard for those caught into the grasp of addictions. Your part of the deal is to simply let God transform the way you think.

What are some behaviors you’d like to change:

• I want to stop smoking.
• I want to lose weight.
• I want to be a better father/mother/husband/wife.
• I want to stop drinking or drugs.
• I want to exercise more.
• I want to read my Bible more.
• I want to spend more time with God.
• I want to go back to school.

How hard have you tried to change your behavior? How successful have you been with that? If you’re anything like me, it’s been quite a failed experience.

My prayers this week have simply been this, “Lord, I let you into my heart and into my mind. I let you into my thoughts, my patterns of thinking, my mind and let you have full access to transform my mind, and to renew my thinking. I let you in to change me, to transform me.”