Over the course of my nearly twenty-nine year marriage I've moved to different houses fourteen times. At the onset of nearly all of those moves I thought about how the new home would make everything better. That being in different walls would solve all of my angst. It wasn't until the past couple moves (the last one being nine years ago) that I realized the only thing that was going to change was my address because I'm a human with issues and I take those issues with me everywhere I go.
Life is a little like that though. We observe others and compare our lives to theirs.
"If my house was bigger I could _____ just like they do."
"If we had more room we would get along better."
"If our house was newer it would look better."
The truth is that rarely does changing our surrounding change anything else. We are still the same messy person we were before. We still have the same marriage issues we had before. We still struggle with our diets. We still don't have the time to exercise. We still waste time. We still can't keep up with housework. We still don't read our Bibles. We still can't control our children.
Because the problem isn't the house. The problem is us.
Every year we make promises as to how life will be better in the new year. And looking at 2020 it may be easier than ever to resolve to make next year better, but unless we change ourselves nothing in our lives will change.
I read a few books this year that really dealt with a lot of deep issues in the church. They had different perspectives but all pointed to the same solution:
Get your Bible out and read it. You are not the center of the universe. Your happiness is not what's important in life. Get over yourself.
The Bible has long been the standard of truth for Christians and it's time some of us return to that. Instead of listening to people telling us to do what makes us happy, we need to get back to doing what makes God happy.
If we aren't living for Him here what makes us think we will spend eternity with Him?
Galatians 6:8 "Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
A new year, a new house, will not make a new you.
Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but 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."
What the world teaches is wrong. Which is why we are advised to not act like the world. You will only find true change and a new you when you allow God to be first in your life and allow Him to change you.
We are the problem.
He is the answer.
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