Nurture the Transformational – Part 1

14 Nov Nurture the Transformational – Part 1

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

We’re continuing our series: “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective.”

Unless we have an eternal perspective, viewing life as God does, we are playing checkers in life while God is playing chess. And, if that’s the case, two things are certain: (1) we will consistently make the wrong moves, and (2) we lose in the end. I’d like to help avoid that.

(If you would like a concise outline to help you keep your mind around the big picture as we move through the details, click here and we’ll send you one. It’s available at the end of this post also.)

Currently in our series on five steps to unleashing the power of an eternal perspective, we’re looking at the first issue involved in Step 5: You Must Nurture the Transformational.

Today we’ll look at Part 1: Carefully Manage What You Believe.

We can guide and accelerate our spiritual growth by changing what we believe.

A book titled Up to No Good: The Rascally Things Boys Do, as Told by Perfectly Decent Grown Men, is a compilation of hysterical stories recalling the childhood years of men who grew up to be perfectly normal. One story provides a powerful lesson about the connection between beliefs and behavior.

“Lou was playing with some friends and decided to try flying. So, they climbed up onto the roof of the barn, and Lou strapped some heavy wooden boards onto his brother’s arms. Then they counted down, and he jumped. He was lying on the ground, groaning in pain with several broken bones, and Lou yelled, “Hey Shorty! You forgot to flap your wings!”

You see, Lou’s brother, Shorty, – momentarily persuaded by Lou – believed he could fly. Based on that belief, he jumped off the roof of the barn. But what he believed was wrong, and Shorty paid the price.

What we believe controls everything about us. If we believe we can fly, we jump off the barn. If we don’t believe we can fly we don’t jump off the barn.

This principle applies to many areas of life. Because Christians are fallen individuals living in a fallen world controlled by a fallen mastermind (Satan), Christians often…

• • Believe things that are not true
  • Do not believe things that are true
  • Struggle to be changed by truth even when we believe it.

So, clearly, what we believe is important – very important. Big things happen in life based on what we believe. In fact, the course of our very lives is shaped, and can even be determined by what we believe. So, we must choose carefully what we believe!

We now know from neuroscience, that our brain does not always believe what is true. Our brain often believes simply what it is told most often.

The more often we hear something, the more likely we are to believe it, regardless of whether or not it is true.

The bad news is that this is what makes brainwashing possible, or what makes politicians able to pull the wool over people’s eyes just by saying something over and over and over. It is the strategy that gave Hitler his power.

The good news is that, if we tell our brain the truth over and over and over again, the brain will believe it, and we can use that reality to replace falsehood with truth to impact our spiritual growth.

We can guide and accelerate our spiritual growth by changing what we believe. Let’s look more closely at that.

We acquire false beliefs in the living of everyday life

Early Experiences Can Cause Bad Beliefs

Early childhood experiences powerfully impact our beliefs. Positive things, negative things, commonplace things all feed our belief system and begin to shape us from the very early age. Psychologists tell us that by the time we are two years old, our worldview is largely shaped, and by six years old the direction of our life has been largely set.

We Can Inherit Bad Beliefs

Our parents and immediate family have a powerful impact on our beliefs, in some cases positive, and in some cases negative. In many cases, it is a combination of the two. But often, the negative influence of family can profoundly color our interpretation of life, our assessment of what it will take to be happy in life. It is difficult to overstate the influence of a family.

Bad Beliefs Can Come from Culture

Our friends, schoolmates, television, the internet all have powerful influences on us. American culture is awash with the idea that everyone has a right to have whatever he or she wants and to be free from any kind of misfortune.

These bad beliefs are lies. And like Shorty’s wooden wings, we jump off the barn of life with them strapped to our arms believing they will enable us to fly, and like Shorty we fall to the ground with various severities of injury.

• • Wrong beliefs + wrong behavior = painful results
  • Right beliefs + right behavior = pleasant results

Unless a Christian’s mind has been renewed by Scripture and truth, he or she typically lives for many of the same things the world lives for, has many of the same values the world has, and suffers the same level of dysfunction and unhappiness that the world suffers.

Beliefs are the key to our spiritual health and well-being 

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” What we believe determines our spiritual health and well-being.

Paul said further, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20-21).

Again, Paul wrote, “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3).

As we transfer our perspective from earth to heaven, our transformed beliefs feed spiritual health and well-being.

Two vital areas in which it is necessary to choose one’s belief in a given situation are:

1. When Suffering

Beliefs are especially important when Christians face trials or suffering. If we think about it biblically, if we choose a biblical attitude toward suffering, we can grow through the trials and not only remain healthy, but become strong.

1. • God will use it to refine us of our primary weaknesses (James 1:2-4).
   • God will use it to help us deepen our walk with Him (1 Peter 5:10).
   • God will use it to increase our eternal reward (Romans 8:18).

The second area in which it is vital to choose our beliefs is…

2. When Pursuing Happiness

When we suffer setbacks in life, by faith we can take comfort in these truths:

• • We have the assurance that God will cause all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28)
  • We have the assurance that an all-powerful God who loves us, not just professionally but personally, will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
  • We have the assurance that in the end, all will be well. (Revelation 21:4)

When we know the truth, and when we believe the truth, and as a result interpret the things that happen in our life with an eternal perspective, it can heal us of negative reaction patterns and give us spiritual and emotional health and well-being in life.

We can change our beliefs

The best news is that we can change our beliefs. 2 Peter 3:18 says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We don’t have to stay where we are. We can grow. We can change.

We have no beliefs that were not put there, either actively or passively. So, if we don’t like an area of our life, it is up to us to find better, true beliefs. Our life can change as fast as our beliefs change.

There are three keys to changing our beliefs.

1. We must know the truth. 

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” To the degree that we do not know the truth, or to the degree that we do not believe it… to that degree, we are vulnerable to ignorance and deception.

If we are in hard circumstances, our first course of action is to learn more about the truth that speaks to our circumstances.

2. We must believe the truth.

This is an act of faith, based on the word and character of God. We must stop to look truth in the eye, come to grips with the fact that it is true, and embrace it.

Someone said, “The truth will set you free, but not until it’s done with you.” So true. It only sets us free as we exercise the courage to commit to it, and do as the truth leads.

3. We must reinforce the truth until it changes us.

Since the brain will begin to believe truth that is repeated, we must send the truth through our brain over and over again until it changes us. To that end, we can…

• • Memorize Scripture and review it daily; more often if necessary.
  • Meditate on Scripture, pondering its implications and applications to our life. Journaling can be a powerful aid to this process – mentally processing by writing down your insights.
  • Visualize responding biblically in predictable challenging situations. The brain does not distinguish between a real and a vividly imagined event. That is why athletes and musicians rehearse over and over again in their minds what they want to do with their bodies. Christians can visualize what we want to become, spiritually – over and over again. This form of meditation will help us become what we think about.
  • Read books, watch movies, talk with friends, and take courses that reinforce Biblical truths.
  • Spend time in nature and solitude with God… and whatever else can reinforce the truth.
  • Pray – asking the Lord to change you.

Conclusion

We started out by saying that what we believe controls everything about us. If we believe we can fly, we jump off of barns. If we don’t believe we can fly, we don’t jump.

As we carefully manage what we believe, it will enable us to consistently make better choices, and reap the rewards of a life that aligns with Scripture and God’s will.

Next week, in Part 2 of Nurturing the Transformational, we’ll look at how we can use our mind to change our brain. I look forward to seeing you then.

Get a Moving from Checkers to Chess At-a-Glance-Overview: Click Here

As we have been studying these concepts for quite some time (including in some prior blog series), I’m excited to now be connecting all the “moving parts” from those posts and combining them into a “spiritual game plan” in this “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective” series.

For an overview of the game plan, so you can see at a glance where we begin and where we’re headed, I’ve created an overview/outline you can download for free: Click Here

For the full discussion of each of the steps, begin with the first post in this series, Moving from Checkers to Chess, and then continue with the following posts thereafter.

In case you’re new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey:

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