You Can Change

This past summer at church, our leadership gave us a couple of activities to complete including the reading of Tim Chester's You Can Change (he is the same author as Total Church if you are familiar with that book). With all the busyness of summer, we just ended up finishing it. The book is good at challenging you as to the reason why you desire change (to prove yourself to God, to prove yourself to others, to prove yourself to yourself) and why we can't change ourselves. Our issues stem from our heart, and it is only God's work in us as we seek to become like and please Him. Probably my favorite part of the book that our pastors reference on occasion is the 4 G's: God is great, so we don't have to be in control; God is glorious, so we don't have to fear others; God is good, so we don't have to look elsewhere; God is gracious, so we don't have to prove ourselves. As I'm flipping through the book again tonight, there are a lot of good and practical sections that show us the way to true change. If you have been struggling with a certain area or just want to find out how to be more resistant to sin, then this book can be of benefit to you. Here's an excerpt from page 113:

God is Bigger than my Sinful Desires...Sometimes in the presence of temptation we feel sin is inevitable. A friend once emailed me, "Temptation comes in two forms. 1. Sin seems attractive. 2. Sin seems inevitable. We feel like we can't do anything about it. We feel trapped. And so we give in to sin." That's certainly true in my experience. I say no to temptation, but the temptation keeps coming back. In the end it no longer seems a question of whether I'll give in, but when. But this is a lie. Sin isn't inevitable for a child of God. We've been set free from its power. I need to believe the truth that God is bigger than my sinful desires. I need faith in God's power if I'm to repent of my sin. 

God is Better than my Sinful Desires...We choose to follow our sinful desires because in that moment we believe they offer more than God. Faith is the realization that God is much, much better than my sinful desires. And when we affirm this in our hearts, we'll inevitably turn from those deceptive and empty desires to find true satisfaction in God. 

how would you like this for breakfast!??!?! :)
my sis did this fun spine project a while ago and since we're doing
human body this year, it was our turn to try it out -
licorice, spinal cord; donuts, vertebrae; gummy savors, intervertebral discs