Matthew 17:19-21 "Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Over the years, I have been to my share of counseling. In my late twenties, I was on a steady diet of sessions with a shrink in Fort Worth.
I tell you that so you know that I understand this psychology stuff. I tell you that so you know that I know of what I am about to speak. I'm no stranger to the way that man wants to try to heal man.
I share that part of myself so that you understand when I was awoken at 4:30am this morning and prompted out of bed by the following, I realized that this post would run counter to everything any well-meaning doctor who would analyze you on his/her couch might say to you.
Incidentally, I got out of bed unwillingly. I am not terribly happy to be writing at 5am. But, it was either get up and type or lie in bed and wonder why God wouldn't let this one go.
It think you'll understand why when you read the following: Change is very rarely about the other person. It is about changing ourselves.
In this passage from Matthew, I always thought the big lesson was that humans can change other humans by having faith. In other words, the disciples goal was to drive the beast out of the person to prove themselves worthy.
But, this morning, God led me to understand that the change wasn't about that it all; it was about the disciples changing themselves enough to have the faith IN GOD that He could accomplish anything THROUGH THEM.
It wasn't the disciples that could move the mountain; it was God moving it as a result of them having enough faith IN HIM that He could do it.
It wasn't them doing the healing; it was them having faith in God, our great physician, who is able to heal men who are too frail to heal themselves.
The disciples failed their mission because they lacked faith in God. If they had changed themselves (had faith), they would have seen a change in the other man. But, the change in the other man would have been accomplished because their faith allowed God to work through them.
So let me repeat the important lesson for the day: we can't change anybody but ourselves.
When our heart changes and we realize that only God can change another person, we are cooking with gas.But, here is where the major paradigm shift has to occur and we have to drop pop-psychology on its head: our goal in this life should NEVER be about changing another person for the sake of making our own lives better.
Our penultimate goal is about changing our self so we no longer care about the other person changing, but care about what GOD can do in our OWN LIFE to change our lack of belief.
Because, even if we have a smallish, itty-bitty, mustard seed size of faith, GOD is able to use HIS power to move mountains.
I think this lesson is so important as we approach the holidays. We are about to be surrounded by people we wish we could change. These are sometimes people who drive us crazy with their greed or who have wounded us and won't admit their part in our pain or who are terribly, horribly selfish.
And, yes, there is room for judgment that these things are sin. And, sure it feels right to wish they would change.
But, there won't be any change in anyone around us until we surrender our lives to Christ and have faith in Him. And, when we ask for that, we can darn sure expect that the change is going to start in OUR LIVES, not in the life of the person against whom we have a beef.
And, truly, you want it that way. It is the ultimate in freedom to be able to accept another human being, faults and all, painful past included, and release your hurt TO GOD, believing by faith, that He has your best interests in mind.
God can do amazing things when we get the heck out of the way and are faithful to know that He sees our pain and wants to help.
But, His ways of helping aren't the ways of the world.
After we have just a smidgen of faith, He heals us from the inside. He heals what is outside of us AFTER we've been touched by His love, and He often uses our healed self to change the person we wish we could change.
This is the exact opposite of the way the world looks at healing: the world wants you to buy the books that say "Fix the other person and your life will be better." Stop believing the lie.
So, this holiday season, feel free to think about all the ways you want to change the people in the room who come to your house or send you Christmas cards or ignore you for the fifteenth Christmas, even though you share the last name.
But, if you truly want to see change by this same time next year? Get busy working on that relationship with God. Get busy reading up on Him. Get busy gathering faith that He can do all things.
Because He can.
And He wants the change to start with you.
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