How People Change 3

The thing that stuck out to me most in this chapter is thinking on the scene in Revelation 7 and reorienting the way I think about everything in today accordingly. What a great hope we have to look forward to! What a great God we have!

Chapter 3: Here’s Where God is Taking You

What Is and What Could Be

If only…

“We all have a personal dream of a better life. We examine our lives, decide where change is needed, and imagine what it would look like. The problem is that our desires don’t go deep enough. It is here that the Bible challenges our dreams….we think the change needs to take place outside ourselves….Meanwhile, God says that what needs change most is us. He does not just work to fix situations and relationships; He is intent on rescuing us from ourselves. We are the focus of His loving, lifelong work of change” (33).

Conflicting Dreams

2 Cor 5:15 and 2 Pet 1:4

Something Worth Dreaming About

“What do you regularly pray about?...Your prayers reveal your dreams….We ask for what we want. Contrast [with Paul’s prayer in Phil 1:3-11].

Confidence and joy in God’s good work for His glory

See your life instead with the eyes of Christ – with confidence in Him and a hope of eternity

Living with the Destination in View

“Everything God does and everything God calls us to only make sense from the perspective of eternity” (38).

Step into Rev 7 and re-evaluate your current situation in light of that scene, and yourself in that scene for all eternity.

Destination Clarifies Our Values

The most important thing happening in your life right now is God’s work in you, the redemption/sanctification process.

“Grace is a process and God is committed to complete the process in each of His children” (41).

“This war of desire is why God invites us to step into eternity, look around, and then look back” (42).

“What about you? Where have you wondered if following the Lord is worth it? Where have you struggled to understand what He is doing? Where have confusion and disappointment weakened your faith? Where have you already let go? Where are you running from the Lord instead of turning to Him? How has God’s work of change been interrupted by your doubt, confusion, or fear?” (42).

“Christ is our hope. He links the forgiveness of the past to the growth of the present to the hope of the future. Hope for the present is rooted in the hope of eternity” (43).