Foolproof way to create lasting change - New Year post

Most people like to use the new year to make changes to their life. Often the new year is seen as a new start, a fresh beginning, a shedding of the old and a beginning of the new.

This is why we embark on new year's resolutions but unfortunately statistics show that new year's resolutions don't work very well as most people give up before the month of January is up.

As Christians we may also set goals but often too they fall by the wayside. We long for change and pray for it. We may make decisions every week to be different, but years later we find ourselves exactly where we were when we first set that goal or dreamed that dream.

So what's the problem? Why are we not seeing the changes - spiritual, emotional, relational, financial... that we want?

The Bible gives us a clear recipe for lasting change and for success.

Change begins and ends with the Word of God.

In the Bible the Word is likened to a seed which once it is planted has the ability to grow, in and of itself, without any intervention (when sown into good soil of course) in the same way that a seed that is sown into the soil grows into a bud, then a plant, then a tree bearing fruit. The Bible says that we do not know or understand how a seed grows (Mark 4:27-28) but with very little help from the sower, when the seed is planted, the seed has the power within itself to grow. In the exact same way, the seed of the Word of God grows, with very little effort from us. All we have to do is to take it and plant it in our hearts, allow it to germinate by meditating on it day and night. Allow it saturate our thoughts and mind. Let it not leave our eyes day and night. Keep it in the midst of our heart day and night (Prov 4:21). Allow it to become part of us and this seed will have the power to bring about more change than a lifetime of our own effort.

In Isaiah 55:8-11, it says that we do not understand how the Word of God works but that it does:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

We do not have to know how it works to work it. We just have to do what the Word says and sow it. Many Christians are doing everything else, like worry, pray, ask others to pray, beg God etc. But all they have to do is to plant the Word.

How do you plant the seed of the Word?

Proverbs 4:20 - Says put it in your eyes and keep it in your heart constantly

Joshua 1:8 - Says meditate in it day and night. Meditation is simply thinking about the Word. You are thinking all the time. Most thoughts are contrary to God's Word. Replace the worry, fear and doubt with the truths of God's Word instead.

Romans 12:3 - Transform your mind by renewing it with the Word of God.

Proverbs 4:22 - Protect your heart for out of it flow the issues of life.

The number one thing that you must do to see long lasting, supernatural, powerful change is to put the Word of God in your heart and let it transform you from the inside out.

The seed of the Word produces healing, produces peace, produces prosperity, produces success but Christians are not planting the seeds into their heart to reap these crops.

This new year if you want to see true change there will only be one way to do that. Through planting, meditating and speaking God's Word.

By allowing the Word of God to saturate you so much that that it controls what you think about, what you believe and how you speak, you will achieve more by accident that you ever could on purpose.

Remember, all you have to do is to put the Word in. Meditate in it until it becomes a part of you. Then speak it out of an overflow in your heart and watch the fruit of the Word grow!

Blessings and Happy New Year!