Lord Change Me!

     With all the turmoil in our world today, it is easy to feel discouraged and overwhelmed.  Many of us turn to prayer when the going gets tough and that is a great place to begin.  However, we need to take a second look at how we are praying.  Too often we focus on changing others, changing the people we work or live with, changing our leaders in government or in church.  Instead, we need to take another approach.
     Instead of asking God to change everything around us, we need to ask Him to change us.  We need His wisdom to see our life as He sees it.  When we pray, we need to ask the Lord to lead and guide us that we might find the purpose for which He has made us.  Furthermore, we need to ask for His will to be done and not ours.  Too often, due to our sin nature, we think the problems we face are someone else's fault.  If they would change, then we could be happy.  Certainly, we can ask God to work in another person's life for His glory and purpose, but we must also remember that we may need a change in our attitude and thinking as well.
     According to the Bible, sin has utterly corrupted our thoughts, words and deeds.  In the Garden of Eden, man was like a pure glass of water.  However, man allowed Satan to put one drop of poison in the cup, and the water became corrupt.  That is how we are affected by sin.  When we come to Christ, we begin a journey of sanctification which will be complete when we see Him face to face in heaven. Until then, we struggle with sin which wants to pull us back to our old habits and perspectives.  Living in a fallen world with all its temptations does not make the journey easy but this is where prayer comes in as well as a study of God's Word.  Scripture tells us in Romans 12:2:  "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  Talking with our Lord each day...throughout the day....brings a change of heart and mind like nothing else can do.
     God's desire and plan for us is to be conformed to the image of His dear Son that we might glorify Him.  With this in mind, we need to be asking God to change our way of looking at others, our job, our church, our community and even our government.  By all means,  we  should and must pray for those around us, but we also need to keep in mind that we are a work in progress too. I confess some of this is hard to understand because God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  This is where we must trust Him and the work He is doing in our lives.
     Mickey Evans (a Pastor now in glory with the Lord) started a ministry at Dunklin Memorial Camp.  He reached out to those with life controlling problems that were breaking up families.  He reminded people in his care about "The Bombshell Theory".  It goes like this:  We cannot change another person by any direct action on our part.  We can only change ourselves and others tend to change as they see the change in us."  This change in our lives is a powerful witness to God's grace through Jesus Christ.  This is why we need to cry out to God, "Lord change me!"  Then we need to say confidently, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".  It is not "my" will be done.  
     Even if God came and changed our circumstances and all the people around us, we still would not be happy.  Until we allow Him to work in us by prayer and His Word, we will never know the contentment we can have as we walk through this world.  Begin today and ask the Lord to change your outlook and understanding that we might be ready to bring glory to His name.  Selah!

Abiding in the Vine

     Recently our son and son-in-law worked hard trimming back branches on our property.  With a machete in hand as well as a chain saw, they worked tirelessly cutting back the overgrowth.  Then when they had finished, they dragged the branches into piles for later disposal.  While the branches were green and filled with life when they were first trimmed, a week later the piles of branches had

turned brown and were quite dead.  It was a striking contrast and one that made me recall the instruction that Jesus gave to His disciples concerning abiding in the vine.
     In the Gospel according to John, we read these words spoken by our Lord:  " 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples" (John 15:4-8).  I love how Jesus speaks in simple terms using nature to point out how important our relationship to Him is for us.
     One of the first points that our Lord makes is that we need to be attached to Him if we want real life.  He said he was "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).   Certainly apart from Him, we have no life.  We are like the dead, dry branches piled up in our yard.  Likewise, in this condition, we cannot do anything because we are not joined to the source of life.  We cannot produce fruit in our lives because we are withered and have no ability to do this on our own.
     However, if we are joined to Christ by confession and repentance trusting in Him for salvation, we are joined into the vine where streams of living water fill our souls and satisfy our longings.  Furthermore, Jesus told us we must abide in Him.  According to the International Study Bible Encyclopedia, the word "abide" means:  Old English word signifying progressively to "await," "remain," "lodge," "sojourn," "dwell," "continue," "endure".   All of these definitions lend the notion that we are to have intimate relationship with our Savior.  We are to stay close to Him and He will stay close to us.  As a result, we will produce fruit which, in turn, glorifies God.  In addition, fruit also demonstrates to the world that we belong to Christ.  This appears, at first glance, to be an easy job.  All we have to do is abide in Christ.    Unfortunately, we have the old nature still clinging to us.  When we give in to it and pull away from Christ, we are unable to succeed in bearing good fruit.  He is our source and life.  As He said, "apart from me you can do nothing."
     There are those outside of the faith who try hard to do things on their own, but they can never succeed without God's help.  Adam and Eve found that out in the Garden.  Humanists have tried to perfect man with every passing generation with little apparent success.  Secularists, globalists, communists, socialists and all the other "ist's" have tried but none can produce the fruit of righteousness that comes alone through Christ as we abide in Him.
     Let us take to heart the lesson of those branches which were cut off on our property.  They withered and died because they were separated from the source of life.  May we know that our life, power and fulfillment come when we abide in Him...it is not in what we can do but what and how He produces the fruit in our lives for His glory.  Selah!