We know Psalm 51 as written by David after being confronted by Nathan over the sin with Bathsheba. He calls upon God, numerous times in the psalm, to cleanse him, to make him whiter than snow, to heal his broken spirit. He promises, in return, to teach others of God’s mercy and His forgiveness, and He praises God for that forgiveness working in his life. David is aware of a change that has to happen in himself to bring himself closer to his God.
Acts 3:20 talks about this change as repentance, and Romans 12 emphasizes this change as a transformation. Paul goes on to talk about how this change manifests itself in our lives, in our morality, in humility, and in our treatment of others. Time and again in Christ’s teachings and those of His apostles, we are instructed to change ourselves, and there are many areas in which we can strive to change and improve ourselves.
Improvement Through Change
We need to change our ignorance into knowledge. Hebrews 5:11 warns us against becoming “dull of hearing,” for such dullness leads to spiritual immaturity. I Timothy 1:7 warns that spiritual ignorance leads to false teachings, but Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that experience and exercising our knowledge is what develops spiritual maturity, helping us discern between good and evil.
This leads us to our second necessary change. I Corinthians 3:1-3 warns against maintaining spiritual immaturity, and they remained worldly-minded because of this immaturity. Hebrews 6:1 calls on us to push on to perfection, full growth in Christ, but this comes with more than time. Our conduct, our attitudes, our spiritual knowledge – these tell others how spiritually mature we are.
Romans 13:11 calls on us to wake out of sleep. He admonishes us to change our laziness into zeal. If we are simply drifting along, we have to awaken and take an active role in our spiritual growth. In verse 14, Paul calls on us to adorn ourselves in Christ and abandon the cares that cause us to languish in worldliness. Also, I Corinthians 15:34 encourages to awake to righteousness, to awake to knowledge, and to sin no more. Ephesians 5:14 merely calls upon us to awake.
Our lack of reverence must then be turned into true worship. In Mark 7:6, Jesus quotes from Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus reinforces this point with a parable of a tax collector and a Pharisee going up to pray. The Pharisee honors God with his lips while praising himself where the tax collector, in his humble confession, truly approaches God in reverence, awe, and humility. Our worship must not only please ourselves, but it must also please our God.
We must furthermore turn our weariness into gladness. We must not let our fatigue do us in. Galatians 6:7-10 and Ephesians 2:10 remind us that we are here to do good works. Look to Jesus as an example. How tiring His ministry was! How discouraging to face opposition time and again! Yet, He never abandoned His mission. He never ceased in doing good for others. Likewise, we must always look for opportunities to serve others.
Giving All
We must stop making excuses. We must stop giving less than our best. We must change our minimums into maximums. In all of these things – our knowledge, our service, our worship, our reverence, our maturity – it comes down to just how much we’re willing to give to God in our lives. We have many necessary changes to make, and we can accomplish them all by giving our all to serving and honoring our God in every aspect of our lives.
lesson by Tim Smelser
Acts 3:20 talks about this change as repentance, and Romans 12 emphasizes this change as a transformation. Paul goes on to talk about how this change manifests itself in our lives, in our morality, in humility, and in our treatment of others. Time and again in Christ’s teachings and those of His apostles, we are instructed to change ourselves, and there are many areas in which we can strive to change and improve ourselves.
Improvement Through Change
We need to change our ignorance into knowledge. Hebrews 5:11 warns us against becoming “dull of hearing,” for such dullness leads to spiritual immaturity. I Timothy 1:7 warns that spiritual ignorance leads to false teachings, but Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that experience and exercising our knowledge is what develops spiritual maturity, helping us discern between good and evil.
This leads us to our second necessary change. I Corinthians 3:1-3 warns against maintaining spiritual immaturity, and they remained worldly-minded because of this immaturity. Hebrews 6:1 calls on us to push on to perfection, full growth in Christ, but this comes with more than time. Our conduct, our attitudes, our spiritual knowledge – these tell others how spiritually mature we are.
Romans 13:11 calls on us to wake out of sleep. He admonishes us to change our laziness into zeal. If we are simply drifting along, we have to awaken and take an active role in our spiritual growth. In verse 14, Paul calls on us to adorn ourselves in Christ and abandon the cares that cause us to languish in worldliness. Also, I Corinthians 15:34 encourages to awake to righteousness, to awake to knowledge, and to sin no more. Ephesians 5:14 merely calls upon us to awake.
Our lack of reverence must then be turned into true worship. In Mark 7:6, Jesus quotes from Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus reinforces this point with a parable of a tax collector and a Pharisee going up to pray. The Pharisee honors God with his lips while praising himself where the tax collector, in his humble confession, truly approaches God in reverence, awe, and humility. Our worship must not only please ourselves, but it must also please our God.
We must furthermore turn our weariness into gladness. We must not let our fatigue do us in. Galatians 6:7-10 and Ephesians 2:10 remind us that we are here to do good works. Look to Jesus as an example. How tiring His ministry was! How discouraging to face opposition time and again! Yet, He never abandoned His mission. He never ceased in doing good for others. Likewise, we must always look for opportunities to serve others.
Giving All
We must stop making excuses. We must stop giving less than our best. We must change our minimums into maximums. In all of these things – our knowledge, our service, our worship, our reverence, our maturity – it comes down to just how much we’re willing to give to God in our lives. We have many necessary changes to make, and we can accomplish them all by giving our all to serving and honoring our God in every aspect of our lives.
lesson by Tim Smelser
