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Being True To Yourself
You want to change – to be a better person – but consider that you may just be secretly living a lie pretending to be someone you are not. I'm sure there are many of you out there who have also struggled with defining who you are as an individual within the boundaries of Christian living. The truth is that sometimes we do have to behave in discord with our heart in order to obey God's command to love. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 - NKJV) But because of our new life in Christ, our heart is not something we need to try to change on our own anymore. I liked to think that I was capable of being good on my own, but the truth is, “God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” [emphasis added] (Philippians 2:13 – NLB)
The awkwardness of feeling phony, when we're trying to be the better person we intend to be, may cause self-doubt in the sincerity of our actions. God warns us of the power of our tongues to destruct ...”ruin(ing) your whole life.” (James 3:6 - NLB) and commands us to think good thoughts “Fix your thoughts on whatever is true and honorable and right” (Philippians 4:8 - NLB) but He didn't say anything about making sure we meant it. The gift of being a Christian is that we can go ahead and behave and think lovingly toward others AND OURSELVES and the heart will follow. It is these very same thoughts and actions that give us the freedom to become better people and lead more rewarding lives as our hearts are inevitably changed as a result – yes, as a RESULT.
The heart, most commonly known as the bearer of our feelings, gets a bad rap for being responsible for our failed attempts to become better people. If it doesn't feel right we tend to find that hard to ignore. Because the heart DOES hold much of how we value ourselves and how we choose to conduct our lives, it is the hardest part to change. God never asks us to change it...on our own that is. Fortunately, the product and springboard from which our lives blossom, is the genuine part in which the Holy Spirit inhabits, and it can never be faked. God has all our bases covered and all we have to do is accept that the good is already here and behave that way.
The behavioural sciences have created this model to demonstrate human behaviour:
THOUGHTS --> FEELINGS --> ACTIONS
It also works in reverse:
ACTIONS --> FEELINGS --> THOUGHTS
Being true to yourself means accepting that it is God who makes things “right.” God is the center of it all (the heart and feeling) whichever end you go at it from. Be fair to yourself and others and act like the good is already there, because it is; being willing to strive for goodness in your thoughts and actions. The new and uncomfortable feelings are something we can rejoice about. It means we've recognized what it looks like when the Holy Spirit is working within us making our hearts more “right.”
TMO