Some words on change from the great A.W. Tozer:
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…in a fallen world such as this, the very ability to change is a golden treasure, a gift from God of such fabulous worth as to call for constant thanksgiving. For human beings the whole possibility of redemption lies in their ability to change. To move across from one sort of person to another is the essence of repentance: the liar becomes truthful, the thief honest, the lewd pure, the proud humble. The whole moral texture of the life is altered. The thoughts, the desires, the affections are transformed, and the man is no longer what he had been before. So radical is this change that the apostle (Paul) calls the man that used to be “the old man” and the man that now is “the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy)
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As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The cynic might say that the essence of a person never changes, but I disagree. I’ve seen it too many times. And for sure, the “ghost” of the old self still hangs around us and influences us, but not in the irresistible way it did before. Before we were almost without choice, easily sucked in , like a piece of fluff at the end of a vacuum cleaner. But now, with the Spirit of Christ living in us, we have the ability to resist, to change, to move from one state of glory to another. We are not determined by our past, but by our future. Our destiny is our destination: that we might be more heavenly with each passing day.
So, my question for you is this? What is top of God’s list for change in you? What do you think God would most like to change? How can you cooperate with him in this venture? If you would like me to pray with you for that very thing, send me an email, and I’ll be glad to.
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