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Lesson 11 Commitment: Think About It
Lesson 11 Commitment: Think About It
COMMITMENT
STEP 6
"We were entirely ready and willing to change and tor God to remove all these defects
of character."
Luke 9:23
And He was saying to them all, "lf anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
THINK ABOUT IT
Good habits establish our moral character. Thus, changing our habits means
remodeling our character and this process is not easy.
To change, we must do it conscientiously and continuously. Some of our defects of
character lie deeply hidden within that it is difficult to detect. A whole lot of them are
commonly practiced and accepted in the society.
We have all been deceived into living a lifestyle according to the will of the devil. Going
through the Glorious Hope program exposes us to these lies, and opens our minds to
the truth according to God’s word. However, these truths work onlv when we apply them
in our life. That is the idea of the word commitment – trusting God for the outcome of
our life even if it will involve us suffering.
In Step 6, being entirely ready and willing to change for God to remove all defects of
character means we are entrusting our life to God, and trusting that He knows what He
is doing.
B. A COMMITMENT TO CHANGE
To follow Jesus is to follow everything about His life and His Word, and not just the ones
we fancy. And He was saying to them all, anyone Wishes to come after Ma L.
Luke 9:23
And He was saying to them all, "lf anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
1. Deny himself
To "come after" Jesus, we must learn to deny our self. It means divesting one’s self
from everything rooted in the old life.
Repentance starts in the mind, where the decision is made, and then puts the
changes into practice.
The renewing starts at the thought level, denying and forsaking sinful thoughts
and attitudes, and replacing them with godly thoughts and attitudes as learned in
the Bible.
Attitude is a mental state-the way you think and feel about someone or
something; it is how you perceive and interpret everything you observe, and how
you act accordingly.
Everything starts with how you think and what you consider important. It is a
mindset that emerges in the form of a behavior in response to anything you
observe.
Attitude makes habit, habit makes character, and character makes a man.
3. Follow Me
We can never find the strength to remove the defects of character, which was our
means of survival in the past, and decide daily to do God's will. By ourselves, we
cannot. But we have an invitation from Jesus: "... follow Me"
Jesus does not invite us to a "by-rule" way of life. He invites us to personal
relationship.
A personal relationship means a personal, ongoing life discipleship toward gradual
transformation into the image of Christ. It happens through continual obedience in the
context of knowing and loving Him as our Lord and Savior, because He gave His life so
that we could live with Him, both now and in eternity.
The battle of transforming our character begins in transforming the mind and in an
ongoing daily battle of hardship. We can only persevere through our personal
relationship with Jesus because He has empowered us through God's Holy Spirit.
The metaphor of a heart transplant is one way of saying that the spiritual life is not
about the surface of things. It involves changes that go down to the core, to the
bedrock, to the foundation – our heart.
Ezekiel 11:19
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart
of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh...