Do You Want to Change?

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25a)

From time to time, we all see areas in our lives that we struggle with; areas that we wish could be different.  It might be moral failures, or we’re discouraged about the bad habits that plague us.  How does God want us to approach those areas?  Is there a way to find freedom and real change?  Yes!

Change is possible; in fact, it’s God’s plan for our lives.

Have you ever been in a situation where you are getting to know someone, and way down deep inside you say, “I hope they don’t find out the truth about me?”  Or you may tell a good friend, “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”  When we enter a relationship with God, we may think that He is like we are.  We think that we need to hide our bad part from Him.  However, if we try to hide unacceptable parts of our personality, we can lose touch with God.

God is not like this.  His ways are not our ways.  He doesn’t accept our good part and reject our bad part. He sees us as a whole person.  He doesn’t see us as a split personality.  God says, “Don’t try to make your bad part better.  It’s impossible on your own.  Give me your good part and your bad part and let me make you whole.”

We live in culture that continually seeks self-improvement.  We spend a great deal of time analyzing ourselves and trying to figure out how to make the bad part better.  We go shopping for better clothes, the latest self-help books, or go to the gym focusing time, energy, and money on improving what we consider to be the bad part.  And the part we can’t improve, or we haven’t improved yet, we try to hide.

Those times when we become aware of aspects in our lives we know are wrong, such as poor decisions, habits, behavior that we are ashamed of, or areas we want God to change, but where we’re afraid of His condemnation, are the times we need God’s grace the most.  If we have received Christ into our hearts, we have been declared His own, forgiven, and now under His grace.  It is His grace that frees us and changes us.  This is why it is so important to know what Scripture says about God’s grace.

Like the Apostle Paul, we must admit, “Wretched man that I am” (Romans 7:24a)!  The word wretched means inadequate or miserable, exhausted from hard labor.  Paul felt so used up from trying to change himself that he came to a point of desperation.

 

In effect, he admitted, “God, I want to be different.  I won’t shield myself from the darkness in my heart anymore.  I want to become the person You want me to be.  So I’m going to face up to who I really am.” We can’t change without recognizing our own wretchedness.  Change begins with the genuine, humble, contrite admission, “I’m the problem.”

Only God can change our hearts.  After Paul’s long description of his sinfulness and his inability to change himself, he simply says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)   

At this point, some readers probably feel frustrated with Paul.  “Paul, I agree with you and I see my desperate condition, I’m ready for the answer, and that’s all you give me?”

It’s so simple that we almost miss it.  The answer is Jesus Christ! He wants to change our hearts.  In our desperation, we need to come to Him and ask Him to do what only He can do.

Does God still change people?  Yes!  And He wants to change you!

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16

Can God change your life?

God has made it possible for you to know Him, and experience an amazing
change in your own life.

Discover how you can find peace with God.