Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
--2 Corinthians 5:17
If you walk into any bookstore today, you’ll find shelves and shelves of self-improvement books…books about how to change and improve your life.
So many of us fall into the trap of thinking that changing our jobs…changing our appearance…or changing our environment will make us happy. But it just isn’t true!
All of these external changes may temporarily improve your life…they may better your life for a time…but none of them can change your life. You may move around. You may change cars. You may even change jobs. But you know what? Wherever you go, it’s the same old you, right?
It’s not that your circumstances or your surroundings need to change. It’s your heart that needs to change. It’s your heart that needs a new birth.
The Bible is pretty clear when it talks about our hearts. In Jeremiah 17:9, it says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” The heart, according to the Bible, is not good!
Which means your heart needs a spiritual transformation. I’m not talking about a resolution…promising to be better, do better, or live better. I’m talking about a revolution!
It’s something so radical, so dramatic, that it’s like beginning life all over again! It’s a new beginning! It’s an inward change! Your heart undergoes a spiritual transformation when God takes it and transplants it with His love and His heart.
So my challenge to you today is…let God transform your heart. Realize that no external change can truly make you joyful or fulfilled. Only a heart transformed by God will. So let Him create a new beginning in you today!
IF YOU WANT TO REALLY IMPROVE YOUR LIFE...START BY LETTING GOD TRANSFORM YOUR HEART
Friday, May 31, 2019
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:”
Psalm 78:4–6
When the forty years of wandering in the wilderness came to an end and the people were finally ready to enter the Promised Land, they faced the flooded Jordan River. There was no way for them to get across, until God stepped in. Much as He had done a generation before with the Red Sea, God worked a miracle to provide a path on dry ground for the Israelites. Before the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant left the river bed, Joshua instructed one representative from each tribe to bring a stone to build an altar in the middle of the river that would be there for years to come. When their children asked about it, “Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever” (Joshua 4:7).
Our faith is not just for ourselves alone. It is a heritage—a legacy even more important than any financial bequest we might make to our descendants—that is meant to continue through the generations. The only way to make that kind of lasting impact is to ensure that the power and work of God in our lives are remembered, and the stories of His power are told over and over.
Today's Growth Principle:
The future of faith in our families and our churches is largely shaped by the reminders we leave for them.
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