Change Begins With ME

Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. ~ Matthew 7:1 AMP

As we go through life, it's easy to point out what we think is wrong with everyone else. It's easy to see someone else's faults or weaknesses. A lot of our stuff is hidden deep inside of us and we may not be able to see our issues as easily. After all, we're with ourselves every day! We should know ourselves better than anyone else, right? While we may know a lot about ourselves, often we are dealing with deep rooted issues that are a result of things in our past. These things may not be as visible as someone else's issues. Therefore we overlook our own problems and spend most of our time trying to fix what's wrong with everyone else.

The Lord taught me a very important lesson many years ago. Instead of going to Him complaining about what someone else was doing and asking Him to change them, He wanted to change ME. It kind of startled me at first because after all, I was doing my best to live like He wanted me to. I was trying to live this good Christian life. I loved people and did my best to show His love. Why was He wanting ME to change??

God has a great sense of humor! The way He does things is so different than the way we would do them! When we start living for Him, we are responsible for our lives. What we do, or don't do, is between us and Him. We have to answer for our actions and our words. We are accountable for the way we treat others. When we stand before Him one day when this life on earth is over, He's not going to ask us about anyone else. We will give an account of the life WE lived.

Each person is responsible for their own lives. We have enough to be concerned about with just ourselves. We don't need the added pressure of trying to fix everyone else too! We must leave that to God and focus on what He's telling us.

If you look back over your life, you may notice a pattern just like I did with my life. You find yourself in relationships or situations and it becomes a cycle that just keeps repeating itself. While the other people involved may have been wrong and may have hurt you deeply, you can't place all the blame on them. If we find ourselves in a cycle and the same thing keeps happening over and over, we have some issues that need to be dealt with. It's time to stop playing the "blame game" and take ownership of our own lives. We must take a deep look within and ask God to show us what's really going on. Why are we in this cycle? Why do we find ourselves repeating unhealthy relationships? Why does all this negativity seem to be attracted to us?

Only when we decide to be honest with ourselves and with God will we find the answers we are seeking. We must be willing to allow Him to expose those things that are locked deep inside. As He begins to reveal them to us, we must be willing to deal with them. He will help us and we will find such freedom when we allow Him to do surgery on us and clean out those things that are poisoning us. They may be a result of things way back in our past and they may have been beyond our control, but once we deal with it, we will no longer have to live in this bondage!

Change always begins with us. When we start allowing God to do a work in us, we will find peace that passes all understanding. We will discover that things that used to bother us no longer send us into a fit of rage. Our relationships with people start to flourish and we are more pleasant to be around. Everyone benefits when we become sincere about letting God do a complete and thorough work in our lives. As we change, we will notice that some of the people around us start changing. We take the pressure off of them to become what "we" want them to be and then God is free to start working in their lives. There is no greater feeling than to know that God is doing a deep work inside of you and making you more like Him! That is what He wants for each of us! All we have to do is give Him permission and be open to His gentle correction. Everything He does is motivated by love and He wants us to be everything He created us to be! He wants us to reach our destiny and to impact this world for Him!