Back to the posts on change...
So there's unnecessary change...beneficial change...and now changing oneself. I'm not talking of reinventing yourself. It's not making a new you. This is the change I think few of us are comfortable with. It's the change that comes from examining yourself...from allowing others to examine you...from allowing God to examine you. It's the type of change that results from David's prayer in Psalm 139 that says, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way within me and lead me in the way everlasting."
I've often wondered if I'm not just completely ignorant of my own faults. Do I treat people the way I should? Do I come off as good of a listener as I hope/think I am? I don't know really, but I want to (now if you're reading this and you know me and the answer is negative...be gentle!).
Change is certainly necessary in the process of our sanctification...our becoming more like Jesus. But this is change that is difficult and sometimes undesirable. It's sacrificial. Costly. Sometimes humiliating and humbling. But this is change that needs to be pursued in the way David did in his prayer above.
Jesus would have a much more honest representation if His followers were willing to make changes resulting from praying this prayer. It's a hard prayer for me to pray, but I know it's necessary (for myself and all of us) if we are to call ourselves followers of Christ.
