There are a lot of self-help videos, books and seminars that
are available that provide some assistance when it comes to enabling change.
We all want to change whether it is losing weight, spending
less money, getting out of debt, being a better father or mother or simply
waking up on time. Almost any advice
will work if the advice is followed and a person is truly earnest and
determined to make the change.
The problem with most of these self-help techniques however
is that they never get to the heart of the issue. Our very nature needs to change. We need more than a tune-up; we need to be
transformed.
Some theologians and even some famous philosophers like
Rousseau and more contemporary philosophers like Abraham Maslow teach that man
is inherently ‘good’ and that if we are bad it must because of some societal
cause or perhaps a mental illness.
I've read these philosophies and often thought they may be well-meaning but actually quite nieve. Instead of looking at the obvious they search for some other explanation.
Most of us that are parents know from experience that the
nature our children are born with is not altogether good. My children, no matter how cute (and they were) didn’t need to learn selfishness
or how to easily become jealous when attention was directed anywhere other than them. They didn't need to learn it because they were
born with it like every other little baby that cries for their mother or takes shiny toys away from siblings.
The Bible is truth, not philosophy and is actually quite clear. The Apostle Paul speaks eloquently of a ‘sin
nature’. The Bible says that there is a
propensity for men and women to follow their heart that the Prophet Jeremiah
called “deceitfully wicked”.
At the core of our issues and our need for change is that we
need a radical transformation. The Bible calls this a ‘new birth’. Jesus said that we needed to be “born
again” no matter how religious or how good we may think we are. Fortunately for us, it’s the
work of the Holy Spirit that causes this radical transformation.
We however do get to participate. When God offers His grace we simply respond. We embrace the forgiveness that Jesus
provides and lean towards this new relationship that has reconciled us back
with our God. As we have been changed,
we no longer conform any longer to the world as we no longer
belong to this world.
The Apostle Paul encourages us to “be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
