COMMON SENSE: The bad news is all of us have been deceived at one level or another. I certainly was for many years. Like so many others, I didn’t realize it. Self-deception is very difficult to discern.
The good news is we don’t have to continue being deceived. There is a solution. It’s available for each of us, but we must work to obtain it. This is the lesson I had to learn. It’s what I want to pass on to you.
To be who Almighty God created you to be, you must learn how to think correctly. There is no alternative to this, and no circumventing it. The issue cannot be skirted. To abide in God’s will, you must to be able to discern what it is. If your thinking is flawed or erroneous, then there is no way you can accurately understand the will of God.
Although this should be obvious to everyone, people miss it routinely. I certainly did. But remember, we have not been abandoned to grope about aimlessly and cluelessly. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and of sound judgment.” Because of who we are in Christ, and because of the Spirit that indwells us, we are tasked with the responsibility of being wise and of having sound judgment.
This begins with correct thinking. Unfortunately, there are millions of believers who do not know how to think correctly. If they did, they wouldn’t be deceived. Each of us knows Christians who “just don’t get it.” For them, this not only affects their personal walk with the Lord, but also how they function in our society.
To be an effective witness, which is measured by how we live our lives and not by the religious rhetoric we proclaim to be true, we must have our personal belief system operating in congruence with the Holy Spirit’s leading. There is no other way to be fruitful—not with positive fruit anyway.
Simply saying something is true, without living it, creates a meaningless existence. Plus, it comes across as being hypocritical and disingenuous. There’s a good reason for this; it is being hypocritical and disingenuous. This is the specific reason why so many non-believers find Christianity unattractive.
Each of us has a role to play. For you to be the person you want to be tomorrow, you must change your thinking today. If you change your thinking—your view of reality—your actions will follow.
This certainly has been my experience and, if you learn to live this way, I can assure you that you will enjoy your life much more than you currently do. It is never the other way around. By and large, most of what Christians are being taught is backwards. The focus is on behavior, not on correct thinking. This is why the net impact of most sermons is actually counterproductive. All that is produced is guilt for not being able to live life flawlessly.
For real change to occur, however, your perception of reality is what must be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If this happens, then our behavior will follow suit. This is what can be liberating for you, and it works. It always works.
JACK’S BOOKS: mcgeeandme.net
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