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Did anyone make a plan to eat healthier? Exercise more? Read the Bible in a year? Spend less money and more time with kids and family? If you made a resolution, how are you doing? I know, it’s just been a week, but according to a study of 40 million people, most people have failed in their New Year resolutions and given up by the second Friday of January. If you haven’t given up yet, good for you, but many of you will by the end of the week.
How many of you set goals last year to get into shape and out of debt and yet you still weigh more than you want and you spent more than you planned in 2023? How many of you set a goal to read the Bible in a year and you still have that goal? Too many of us make plans to change but are never able to follow through and so year after year nothing changes and we just feel stuck. We want to improve our lives but we never seem able to achieve the change we want.
If you are tired of feeling stuck and longing for some real change, you are not alone. In fact you are in some very good company and I don’t mean those around you. There is someone else who understands our struggle and he is the one who wrote most of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. Paul went through a dramatic change in his life when he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and he was one of the most faithful and courageous people for Jesus that the world has ever known, but he also felt stuck when it was time to make a change. In his letter to the Romans, Paul said
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. Oh, what a miserable person I am!
Romans 7:15, 19, 24a (New Living Translation)
Of all the passages of scripture, this one is the most real and raw for me. This is how I feel in so many areas of my life. I know how I want to live and the disciplines I want to have, and I know all the ways I want and need to change, and I try to change, but the good I want to do I don’t always do, and the wrong and the evil that I don’t want to do I too often end up doing, and I feel miserable. Year after year I feel miserable because I make the same resolutions, set the same goals, and give up after failing in the first 2 weeks of January.
There is a reason we go through this cycle over and over again, it’s because we are trying to change the wrong way. One of the foundations of this message series is what real change is and isn’t.
Real change is NOT behavior modification.
Real change IS spiritual transformation.
Real change isn’t behavior modification. It’s not just changing the outside of our lives but asking God to change us from the inside out. Real change has to be spiritual, changing who we are, or who we think we are, and living from the inside out. Paul understood this. As long as he was trying to change his behavior on his own he ended up failing and miserable. What changed him, what freed him so that he could live life the way he wanted to live it and the way God wanted him to live it, was the power of Jesus Christ. Paul said,
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:24-25a (NLT)
Paul knew that when it came to real change in his life, he had to lean into and draw on the power and strength of Jesus Christ.
As a Christian, when it comes to thinking about change and how God is involved in helping us change, there are three mindsets we tend to see. Two are wrong, but one is right.
The first mindset is: God THEN me.
With this mindset, we see how God begins a process of change by drawing us to Himself. We come to terms with the reality of our sin, we accept God’s forgiveness, and we know that Jesus saves us. As we walk with Jesus, we begin to see the kind of life God wants us to live and we think we are supposed to go out and just do it. Do all you can to be like Jesus. With this mindset we often think, if it’s going to be, then it’s up to me. We are the ones who have to make the change. We have to think better, act better, speak better, love better and live better. It’s all up to us.
This mindset usually ends in failure because we don’t have what it takes to live the life God sets out for us. On our own we will try, but fail. On our own we end up in a constant cycle of trying and failing. We can’t do it, only God can do it, which leads to the second mindset: God NOT me.
With this mindset we tell ourselves that it is God’s job to change our lives. Because we can’t do it, we’ve tried and failed, it must be God’s job. I can’t do it so God has to do it for me. With this mindset we are expecting God to do the difficult things that we don’t want to do, or we end up asking God to clean up the messes we have created. For example, with this mindset, we don’t try to control or limit our spending, we ask God to help us pick the right powerball numbers so we can win the jackpot and get out of debt.
The problem with this mindset is that it absolves us of any personal responsibility. We just expect God to make all the changes and for God to do all the work. While God longs to change us and at times He steps in to make dramatic changes in our lives, this is not the way real change will be experienced in our lives. God doesn’t exist to clean up our messes and do all the work for us, God wants a relationship with us, which leads us to the third and right mindset:
God THROUGH me.
This is what spiritual transformation looks like. It looks like God’s power working in us and with us and through us to bring about real and Godly change in our lives. This is the mindset Paul gives us when he says,
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
Paul was very clear about the kind of person he was and that the only reason he had changed was because of the grace of God. The grace of God changed Paul dramatically and it was that grace that continued to change Paul's life. But Paul went on to say, while God’s grace was at work in Him, he also worked hard. He worked harder than all of the apostles in serving Jesus, and he did.
Paul traveled more to share the gospel, he established more churches, and he was persecuted more than the other apostles. Paul faced stonings, shipwrecks, snake bites and shackles because of his hard work for the gospel. Paul did more work for the gospel than maybe any other single person other than Jesus, but he knew that his hard work wasn’t the full reason for the change and growth in his life because he goes back and says that all his work was only effective because of the grace of God that worked through him as he was working.
There is a balance and understanding Paul has that he doesn’t work without God and that God wants to help him and equip him to work as well. There is a partnership that takes place as we allow the Holy Spirit to bring about transformation in our lives. God works through us to strengthen us so that we can work for and with God. This is spiritual transformation and not just behavior modification. This is where there is real power to change.
This all sounds good, but how do we begin to put this into practice? Well, for spiritual transformation to take place it has to be spiritual. Profound, isn’t it? But it’s true. Spiritual transformation has to be powered by the Holy Spirit and it requires us to ask spiritual questions about who we are and how we live and why and where change is needed.
Behind every motivation to change there is a why and a how. If we want to get in shape this year, why? Is it because we want to look good, or get ready for the beach or maybe the big high school reunion coming up this year. Is it because our doctor told us we should? Is it to lower our health care premiums? Why are we motivated to make the change and then how will we do it? How will we get in shape? We will follow the latest diet; keto, clean eating, dry January or intermittent fasting?
All of these whys and hows are fine, but they don’t help us tap into spiritual transformation because they aren’t asking deeper spiritual questions. Is there a deeper spiritual reason why we need to think about getting into shape and improving our health? A spiritual reason we might want to get into shape is because we were created by God and our bodies are the temple of the Spirit so we should want to take good care of what God has given us. Tapping into the spiritual why behind our need or desire for change can help us think about transformation and not just modification. And how will we make this happen? Don’t just think outwardly but inwardly. What is the power of God that we can draw from as we try and make changes in our lives?
Another resolution people make is to spend less time online. That’s a great goal. When we look at our devices and see how much time we really spend connected online, we might begin to see the need for a change. But can we identify a deeper reason to change, a more spiritual reason why we should spend less time online.
A spiritual reason for spending less time online could be that if part of our purpose as children of God is to love God and love others, it’s hard to do that effectively when we are spending 4 hours a day on social media. Spending less time on social media gives us more time to love and serve God, as well as time to love and serve our family, friends, and community in ways that will be a blessing. A spiritual why can help us focus on spiritual transformation and not just behavior modification.
Another goal people set is to spend less money and get out of debt. Again, that is a good and worthy goal, but what if we dig deeper and talk about the spiritual dynamics of money and spending. Can we see that all of our money is a gift from God and that we are called to use it all wisely? If we can get out of debt and spend less, then it frees up more resources for us to be a blessing in our church and community. There can be true spiritual transformation that takes place in our lives when we begin to see our spending, and saving, and giving as spiritual acts not just financial acts.
When we look at where change is needed in our lives and begin to uncover the spiritual whys, it will help us see where spiritual transformation is needed. Seeing where spiritual transformation is needed helps us ask for the spiritual power needed for change. How we tap into that spiritual power to find transformation will be some of what we focus on in the weeks to come. For now, let’s understand that the Bible is clear, God gives us power to change and strength to overcome.
1 John 4:4. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. The Holy Spirit is powerful and is present to work in us and help us overcome all things. And the Apostle Paul said,
I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NLT) There is a power God makes available to us that can transform us and not just change our behavior.
There is power from God that can help us experience real change. We don’t do it on our own, it’s not God then me, and it’s not all God’s job to change our lives, it’s not God and not me. Real change is God through me. The power of God can bring spiritual transformation so we can become the people God created us to be and it is the Holy Spirit that equips us so that transformation is possible. If you are tired of being stuck, stop trying to change your behavior and begin to ask the Holy Spirit why and how real spiritual transformation can take place in your life.
Next Steps
The Power to Change - Week 1
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions this year?
How are you doing with them?
Most people give up on their resolutions by January 14th. When have you made resolutions and followed through on them? What gave you the ability to make real change?
Read Romans 7:15, 19, 24-25.
In what ways do you connect with Paul’s message?
How can your relationship with Jesus help bring about lasting change?
Three ways we think about God helping us change.
● God THEN me. God calls us to change and then we have to do it on our own.
● God NOT me. We can’t bring about real change so we ask God to do it all.
● God THROUGH me. We ask for God’s grace and power to help us change from the inside out.
See 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
What are the problems with the first two ways we think about change?
Asking for God’s grace and power to work through us requires us to uncover some spiritual whys and hows.
Thinking about the change you want in your life:
● Why do you want to change?
● Why might God want you to change?
● What are the spiritual reasons why you need to change?
Take time this week to uncover your spiritual whys and ask God to prepare you for the change His grace and power can bring to your life.
