WEEK FOUR - DAY TWO - BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION VS. HEART CHANGE

 Well, that's always fun!  Just as I was finishing up the post for this day's summary, I lost it!  Completely!  It was there, and then it wasn't!  I always wonder when that happens, and it doesn't happen very often at all, if there was something that I had stated that didn't need to be published...?  If so, then I am thankful for the protection afforded me; if not, I'm a little aggravated in the time wasted!  But, you can be sure I'm going to review my words very carefully as I write and ask for Holy Spirit guidance to protect me as I go...I'll try to remember some of what I previously wrote, but I know it will be different, and that's ok too!

So....what is the difference between behavior modification and true heart change?   For one thing, behavior modification can be self-driven and self-accomplished.  We all can decide in our minds that we are going to start, or quit, a certain behavior and in a certain percentage of attempts, we may actually succeed in doing so...on our own, in our own strength.  But who can change their heart by themselves?  Even using a physical heart transplant as a comparison, who is able to do that on their own?  When pills have failed and nothing else will suffice...no, if we need a heart transplant we're going to require a highly skilled surgical team - we want the best in the field!  We certainly can't attempt it on our own!  

Well our spiritual hearts are even more delicate, and if we're going to ask for them to be changed, we certainly want the best there is to handle that procedure.  The best would be the One who actually knew our heart inside and out, without even reading our history.  We could trust Him with our heart, couldn't we?  That's what God asks of us....give Him our hearts.  Let Him do the transplant for us...all He needs from us is that consent form....submission.   That's where the people of Judah were having such a hard time.  They just could not get to the point of giving it all up.  And what was God asking of them to give up?  Lives of split devotion to Him and to idols; lives of split loyalty to their nation and to the countries around them; lives of self-centeredness and self-worship.  Why couldn't they see that their hearts had grown stone cold and they needed to be changed?  In Jeremiah 25:3, Jeremiah says that he has called to them on God's behalf for 23 years!  Twenty-three years and they still were refusing his message and call to repentance.  How long do we make God call to us to get us to see that we are in need of a heart change?  How long before we put our hearts totally in His hands to lead us in His ways without resistance.

I think a good summation is something I heard once, we spend way too much time pondering what we should be DO-ing for God, rather than considering the person we should be BE-ing for Him.  God is much more interested in who we are at our core level than the outward acts that we do.  But again, we can't just decide to BE that kind of person.  We'd love to be able to just take a pill and transform ourselves into whom God wants us to be.  But it is only through God's molding and shaping that we will start becoming a person reflective of His Spirit.  When we present our hearts to God to mold and shape and keep soft, He then is going to grow us into becoming a person who reflects His Spirit and the fruit of His Spirit will be evident in our lives...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  If we're having a hard time seeing those things evident in our lives, it may be time for a heart-checkup.  We may need a restart.

That makes me think of when a heart has gotten out of beat and the cardiologist has to restart the heart so that it will again have a proper rhythm....I think that's what God asks of us sometimes.  We may have given our hearts to Him a long time ago, and so thankful that we have done that, what a critical step in our walk with Him.  But we cannot think of that first profession of faith, that first surrender as our last progression in our walk.   When we do that, I think we put ourselves in danger of getting out of sync with the heartbeat of God.  Our hearts need to be continually monitored and evaluated; we need to continually present our hearts to God for His examination.  Just as the cardiologist has to restart a heart that has developed arrhythmia, our hearts may develop a spiritual arrhythmia when they are beating according to the tempo of the world - beating along with the drums of materialism and greed, bigotry and hate, sarcasm and cruel tongues.  When God calls out to us that we need a restart, boy do we need to get in to His heart clinic as fast as we can!  The longer we put it off, well, you know how that goes!

So if you're wanting behavior modification, hey, there's a ton of great books out there on how to change just about any part of you that needs changing!  But if you need a heart change....well I know the best in the field, in fact He's the only One in the field....and, as a matter of fact, He just happened to write the best-seller of all time!