“Can people change?”
At one time, people thought that Psychology, properly applied, could correct all the maladies of the psyche. However, the growing professional consensus is that “people do not change.” Accordingly, counseling helps smooth out some rough spots, but—since “people do not change”—the best chance at a manageable existence lay in new and creative medicines.
Therefore, some "professionals" mock and scorn the Christian view of conversion, which insists that people can truly change. No doubt, psychological and emotional disorders pose formidable challenges—even for converts—but in Christ, people can truly change.
One need not have mental disorders to need a total makeover. Many people, unhappy with the hand dealt them, live in quiet despair. Some live lives broken by their own choices. Still others desire to have unwanted personality quirks changed: pessimism, anger, fear, loneliness, discouragement, compulsion, and addiction. They’re discontented with life but hoping for a better day. Can people really change?
The Scripture promises: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2Cor 5:17). Those believing in Christ are “born again,” made spiritually alive “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pet 1:3).
The Bible offers many examples of those changed by encountering God. Moses exchanged his fears for faith and became a mighty deliverer. Paul changed from an angry persecutor of the Church to her most prized theologian. John the zealot became John the Beloved. Moreover, since the time of Christ, billions of people have laid claim to new life in Him. While not laying hold of a perfect life (at least not yet!), they do lay hold of a new life nonetheless.
Now, the nature of change differs for each person. Some change immediately; others take more time. Either way, the life given to Christ begins the life-long process of transformation, by which it is renewed, becoming at last the whole and happy person which God intends (Rom 12:2; Col 3:10).
Perhaps you’ve heard the old joke that inquires, “How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?” “One,” we’re told, “But the light bulb has to want to change.”
What is true of the light bulb is true for all of us. We can change—if we truly want to.
–Pastor Scott (www.askpastorscott.com)
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