what doesn’t work?...

we are looking at refocusing our priorities and that it starts with a change of heart so my question is: what makes this happen?  i’ve got to figure this out.  what makes this change of heart thing happen? 

before we give GOD’s answer to that question let’s look at some things that don’t work to change our heart. 

one thing that doesn’t work is pressure.  pressure does not work to change your heart.  if someone tries to push you in to a change of heart, what happens?  when they push you, what do you do – you push back.  that’s just what we do.  so you can’t pressure yourself.  GOD can pressure you but other people can’t pressure you.  it doesn’t work that way. 

the second thing that doesn’t work is guilt.  feelings of guilt, they serve real well like a warning light on your dashboard that says something is wrong and you need to do something.  but that’s about how long they should last.  you look at them.  there’s a warning.  i need to do something.  if you try to load yourself down or load others down with guilt hoping that’s going to change their life it just makes you feel heavy.  it doesn’t change your heart.  it weights down your heart.  that’s what guilt does.

then a third thing that doesn’t work is time.  there’s the old phrase “time heals all wounds.”  that’s not true.  there’s a lot of wounds that time does not heal. 

sometimes it takes forever then all of a sudden you wake up one day and – boom!  – you’re changed.  why that day?  other times it seems like you change your heart very quickly.  why the differences in time?  because it’s not a matter of how long.  it’s a matter of some ingredients that GOD puts into place in our lives, a combination of factors that lets this change of heart happen and allows us to begin to live the life that HE made us to live.

just a thought from the front porch…