Monday September 03, 2018

 

When you listen to the testimony of successful people, you will see that many of them say that words like “you can’t do it” or “you are not able” became powerful motivating factors in what they achieved. They took offense with the naysayers and haters and used their words to fuel their endeavors. I am not too different in that in my capacity as a church leader, I too have used the words of naysayers as a motivating factor to keep me pushing forward in creating an organization that leads people in a growing relationship with their Heavenly Father. However, I do so with a mayor difference; I also acknowledge my inabilities. I also recognize that there are things that I simply am not gifted to do.

 

As followers of Jesus, there exists no other area in which our inabilities become more evident than in the area of our character. How many times have we made sincere promises to God that we did not keep? We pledged, vowed, committed, and recommitted but we were not able to keep our word. It gets worse; not only do we lack the ability to consistently keep our word, often times we even find ourselves disagreeing with our Heavenly Father and at times, at the very least, questioning Him. It is not that we lack the knowledge to know what God wants. What we sometimes lack is the ability to accept God’s will for our lives.

 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 NIV

 

Many times, God’s will for our lives is not a mystery. We know what He wants in most areas of our lives, but the problem is that we do not think that what He wants us to do is good, pleasing, and definitely not perfect. The Apostle Paul tells us, that our inability to agree with God is basically an issue of bad programming. We have allowed ourselves to be conformed to the patterns of this world and not to the patterns of our Heavenly Father who created the world.

 

It is only when we pray: Lord, I am trying to be the right person and do the right thing but I am unable to consistently do so. I surrender; would you renew my mind by uninstalling the old programming and installing new programming? I want to see what you see and think as you think. Then, I truly believe that God will answer our prayer and give us the ability to not only see things from His perspective, but He will also give us the ability to test and approve wholeheartedly what His will for our lives is.

 

The most powerful motivating factor in becoming the right person and doing the right thing is not negative words like, “you can’t do it”, or “you are not able”. The most powerful motivating factor for those of us, who follow Jesus, is to allow God to transform us by renewing the way we think. Additionally, along with the renewal will come the ability to see that God’s will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

 

Dear Lord, I am trying to be the right person and do the right thing but I am unable to consistently do so. I surrender; would you renew my mind by uninstalling the old programming and installing new programming? I want to see what you see and think as you think. Amen