The first thing to change: What we believe.

I shared here about the pilot that pulled a u-turn on our flight to Medford. Halfway down we turned around and returned to Portland because of a mechanical error. Some alarm or light had warned him that something was wrong and he wisely turned around so we could change planes.

What warning light is flashing on your dashboard? What is the struggle, sin, area of weakness, hurt, wound, thing that’s alerting you to the act that God wants to bring change?

Whatever the problem may be, the answer to that problem is the gospel of grace.

All errant behavior is a result of errant belief. And I don’t mean errant head-knowledge. Head-knowledge is not the same as belief. We always act according to what we believe, what we actually believe.

•  We don’t give generously to people in need because we don’t actually believe that there’s enough for us, or we don’t believe those people are as important as we are.

• We don’t trust because we don’t really believe God is trustworthy.

• We don’t rest because we actually believe that things completely depend on us.

• We don’t forgive because we actually believe we are responsible for keeping standards and making people pay for their sin.

• We don’t meditate on and study God’s word because we don’t actually believe He has the power to change us.

• We don’t pray because we don’t believe God.

Do you see what I mean? We don’t give, pray, live joyful lives, because there’s something amiss in what we believe about God.

That’s why AW Tozer said that what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Because he knew that what we believe about God dictates every single behavior in our life.

It all stems from what we believe about God.

So often we think that our Bible study, our church-attendance, our faith is somehow separate from the nitty gritty details of life. But what we believe actually has everything to do with how we live because we always live, act, behave, in accordance with what we really believe.

Sacred mundane.

So, in order to be changed our behavior we must change what we believe. And in order to change what we believe, we must hold our current beliefs up to the truth of God’s Word. That’s the only way to see where we’re believing something other than the pure, gospel of grace. Scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So in order to change our faith, or what we believe, we need to look, really look, at God’s Word.

All our efforts at change will be mere behavior modification if they are not fueled by the truth of who God is. They’ll all backfire. Real change takes place when we change what we believe about God and line it up with the truth of His Word.

{Have you spent time in the Scriptures yet today? Perhaps take five minutes right now and let His truth soak into your heart and mind. This is the first step on the road to change. Thanks for reading.}