Changing Is A Process

       Learning to trust God and accept Him, learning to heal and overcome my past through Him was not a one prayer and done thing, it did not happen over night. Learning to give up certain things, ideas or attitudes I had picked up from the world was not an easy task and I have often had relapses as I have tried to let go and turn away from my sin, or the sin triggers. I had to learn that when God says He is always with us, that He really is and that I was never alone once in this process. I had to learn that I was not condemned for my failures by the Lord, then learn to trust and believe it. I had to learn a lot to change from who I was to who I am and all that learning took time and experience. All that learning took hours of studying the Word and applying the principles of it to life, it took hours of praying, and listening for His voice to guide me. It's taken years to get past all the brokenness and walk in the freedom that Yeshua paid for on the cross.
       I wanted to write about this again today, how there is a process to changing because sometimes I feel like some Christians forget that. That some expect new believers to be perfect or if not perfect at least at the same level they are at, forgetting that it took time for them to get there. But not just for these people but the people who say the prayer of salvation, say they've surrendered their hearts and suddenly expect their lives to be totally different without putting in any work, then get upset and blame others when its not true. I've seen it happen both ways and both are equally disappointing for the same reason, the beauty of the process is being missed.
       It wasn't in the moment of surrender to Jesus that I was changed, but it was in that moment that I finally admitted I needed Him in order to change. Just like it wasn't the moment that He met Peter, Andrew, Matthew or John that they were changed, that took spending time with Jesus, and learning about God. They didn't immediately start working miracles, they first had to learn how to operate in the Spirit, they didn't immediately start preaching about Jesus, they first had to learn from being with Him who He was. Learning, accepting, and operating in their individual callings took time, but meeting Jesus told them there was something different and special about Him. They saw something in Jesus that drew them to Him, they saw the Father in Yeshua and they knew they wanted to know Him too.
       It's in the process of praying and reading to get more intimate with God that we are truly changed. It's in the accepting of His truths and applying them to our lives that we are changed. It's in the learning to love God first and others second that we are changed. It's in the learning of who God is that we are changed. It's in the seeking that we are changed, and start to see God's nature expressed to us not only in His Word, but in our life. When we learn to identify the ways in which God speaks to his children in the Bible and through it we begin to understand how His presence operates in our day to day life, and the importance of following His ways. This changes you. The prayer of salvation, and surrendering our hearts are only part of the process, because if you don't seek God, you won't find God.  Until you put actions to your words that's all they really are.
       The day I surrendered and begged God to get me out of my mess, I had to act too. I had to pray and seek Him, and I had to take the necessary steps to change my circumstances. I had to be obedient to Him and take the steps, make the changes and show God I was serious. I cried out and He heard me in my trouble, I looked to Him and showed me the path, but I had to take the steps, I had to keep walking with Him. Since the day I promised to serve Him if He got me out I have continued to seek Him and in the seeking of His truth He has been continually changing me. It may be a whole chapter or passage at just the right time, or maybe one single verse that convicts and corrects me, but God is changing me from the time I spend with Him. The simple truth that I have learned is this, changing is a process of spending time with God, spending time in prayer, and in the Bible. Changing is the process learning to trust God more than ourselves, and accepting His ways over the world's. The prayer of salvation and surrender of our hearts is part of it, they initiate it telling God we are ready, we want Him, it opens the door to the narrow path, but its the decision to seek Him intimately or not that will really change who we are. Be blessed in Yeshua's name.

Deuteronomy 4:29   
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Proverbs 8:17   
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.