It is hard to change on your own, to muster up will power and just CHANGE. It is tough. That’s why people like New Year’s Resolutions: the idea of a new year easily coincides with the idea of a new habit. But dates are arbitrary—a week later, January 7 feels just like the year before. What you need is a change of heart. Can you give up smoking? Your heart better be in it. Can you take up jogging? You better have the heart for it. Lasting change begins on the inside.
But how?
The God who made the universe—He can change your heart. The biggest changes in my life began when God changed my heart. (Not at salvation; years later.) He changed me ON THE INSIDE. Following that, I walked in the new change every day, driven forward as though I had an engine inside pushing me toward the goals God had chosen for me. I reached those goals, but only because God changed my heart first. And in some cases, that change came only after much prayer.
God can turn your heart toward Him—or away from Him. When it served God’s purposes, He turned Pharaoh’s heart AGAINST the Israelites.
“The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let the Israelites go” Exodus 10:20.
But God gave the Israelites favor with the Egyptian people and they showered the Jews with gold and jewelry, begging them to leave the nation where they had been enslaved for 400 years. God turned the Pharaoh’s heart one way, but He turned the hearts of the Egyptian people the other. God can do anything—even in people’s hearts.
“The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hands of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes” Proverbs 21:1.
Does something in your life need to change? Ask God—BEG God—to change your heart. Everything else flows from there.
Dear God, CHANGE OUR HEARTS. Give us the dreams and passions that You want us to have.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 