Sometimes in life we are faced with an opportunity to change.
Not a change in location.
Not a change is marital status.
Not a change of occupation.
All of which are opportunities for sure.
But what I’m speaking of here is an opportunity to change and become better as a person. To gain freedom from a habit or way of thinking that has held you back from progressing forward in your personal/spiritual growth.
Sometimes when people are faced with these opportunities that would challenge the way they think, they fight against them…
especially when it comes to the Bible.
Some – not all – have preconceived notions about what the Bible says and if they run across something in the Bible – via devotions, a lesson at church, a conversation with a friend or a podcast, that goes against what they currently think or goes against how they are currently living/acting, instead of responding to the conviction of the message to make the needed change, they begin to fight against the message itself.
“That can’t be because my life experience is this.”
“That must not be what the Bible really means” (though it is stated very plainly that it is.)
They fight against the opportunity to change and become better by attempting to discredit the messenger or the message of scripture so they don’t have to change. It’s an attempt to make the Bible match them rather than them match the Bible.
This is one way people respond to conviction, they blame something else and push for the truth to change rather than change and adjust to the truth. (Of course in reality they are fighting for their truth to win the day rather than God’s)
The Bible is filed with all kinds of inconvenient truths, because the Bible’s teachings are counter cultural in many ways. The Bible turns what we have learned from our culture upside down an makes us uncomfortable at times. It requires us to change, even when we have rationalized our way around the truth it proclaims, it still stands on those truths and doesn’t change, we have just decided not to adjust to those truths.
This decision is a rejection of the opportunity God has placed before us for a better life, for a greater ability to live in His freedom.
And what we should have done…
Is we should have taken the hard teaching…
And rose to the challenge to adjust our way of life or our way of thinking to what the Bible says and even if we don’t understand completely how it all works, we trust it anyway because our faith says it is what we must adjust to regardless if we initially agree with it our not.
God isn’t looking for your agreement, He is looking for your acceptance of His truth by faith.
And what I have found when I have adjusted in this way is, over time God shows me why that particular teaching is the better way to live as he washes away all the lies I had believed up until that point in time.
So…
Don’t miss the opportunity to change that God has placed before you today. Instead of fighting the conviction (and you might not even know thats what it is but it is the reason you are fighting the truth) give into it instead, and submit to it. Then you will not miss God’s opportunity He has placed in front of you to live better for Him.
An opportunity for a better life.
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