Forgive my judgemental attitude. After reading the comment from my last posting I have realized that I did make it seem pretty easy to over come our past and just simply change. Making a change in our life of course is never easy, or as the commenter said... you'd think more people would do it.
My hope was to enlighten readers that they do have the hope to be able to change their circumstances and live a life differently than their past, especially if they see how badly it has hurt them over the years. Especially when they begin to do the things to their loved ones that they had done to them and as adults realize now that it's just not right. Something inside of them says... I've got to change.
We all have a conscious and this conscious determines our values and morals based off what we've been taught and what we've experienced. So our conscious will guide us and help us to make choices determining how we feel. But our conscious is not all knowing, our conscious doesn't give us the strength to over come, it simply reacts to what we're going through. Any real hope of change I believe comes from God and the pricking of His Holy Spirit in our lives. His Spirit convicts our heart of our sin and challenges or even demands that we change. And when we don't, we suffer. We suffer guilt, we suffer with disappointment, we suffer with more consequences to our circumstances. But if we're convicted by the Spirit to change... then we have the power as well to change and overcome. Maybe the reason people don't change is because they don't want to change, it's all they know. Maybe they don't understand or even realize what they are doing is wrong because they never saw it modeled any other way.
I compare this to an alcoholic or drug addict. Many addicts know that what they are doing is wrong and even say to themselves everyday... I have got to change my behavior. Most real drug addicts know that they will end up their lives with drug abuse either in Prison or Dead if they don't change. There are some that do not realize they even have a problem. They think they got it under control and can quit if they wanted to, or at least slow down. But they can't if they truly are addicted. Soon it gets so bad they realize they must get help. They must change and they have reached a place in their life where they want to change. They want to break the cycle and make things better. Usually this realization happens only after they have gotten to the point of disaster, bottomed out, their life's a wreck and so is everyone they know and love. The decision to change was not easy and never is... this decision to change usually comes at the end of a long rope of pain and suffering.
I'm not saying that everyone that changes their life is a Christian either. Many get help from family and friends and or institutions that are experienced and know what obstacles that the addict is facing and they know best how to overcome and help the addict with his or her recovery towards living a life free of drugs or alcohol. However, the Christian has all the power to overcome, and change. We as believers know and understand that with God anything is possible, but the decision to change still comes from within each of us. To allow God to change us so that we can have victory means to give into his leading or in other words, be obedient to the Spirits leading. This obedience is where we fail. We just find it so difficult to change that we allow ourselves to make excuses that causes us to repeat the cycle we're wanting to break. It's tough, it's hard, and it's anything but easy.
But... it's possible! There is hope. You can overcome. You can have a better life. With God anything is possible. If you'll put your full faith and trust in Him, you can overcome. I think of the book of Job. This man was faithful to God even when he didn't realize why such bad things were happening to him. In the end he was blessed more than he ever dreamed because of his faithfulness. Put nothing happened as he had planned or could foresee. My point is that we have to remain faithful and trusting that God will get us through this change that we're going through. Be sensitive to His leading and through His power you will have victory. It's when we realize we can't believe in ourselves that we must believe in God. He can change your life!
Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
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