Purpose Driven Life

Here's some good read from Chapter 23: How We Grow. It's kinda long, but I like the one on the autopilot especially. I could type out the whole chapter!!!

"God wants you to grow up."

"Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship-the process of becoming like Christ-always begins with a decision."

"Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you."

"Christlikeness is the result of making Christlike choices and depending on His Spirit to help you fulfill those choices."

The Bible says, "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." The "work out" is your responsibility, and the "work in" is God's role. This verse, written to believers, is not about how to be saved, but how to grow. It does not say "work for" your salvation, because you can't add anything to what Jesus already did. During a physical "workout", you exercise to develop your body, not to get a body. Farmers "work" the land, not to get the land, but to develop what they already have. God has given you a new life; now you are responsible to develop it "with fear and trembling".

"To change your life, you got to change the way you think. Behind everything you do is a thought. Every behaviour is motivated by a belief, and every action is prompted by an attitude. Imagine riding a speedboat on a lake with an automatic pilot set to go east. If you decide to reverse and head west, you have 2 possible ways to change the boat's direction. One way is the grab the steering wheel and physically force it to head in the opposite direction from where the autopilot is programmed to go. By sheer willpower you could overcome the autopilot, but you would feel constant resistance. Your arms would eventually tire because of the stress, you'd let go of the steering wheel, and the boat would instantly head back east, the way it was internally programmed.

This is what happens when you try to change your life with willpower. Willpower can produce short term change, but it creates constant internal stress because you haven't dealt with the root cause. The change doesn't feel natural, so eventually you give up and quickly revert to your old patterns.

There is a better and easier way: Change your autopilot-the way you think. The Bible says, "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Change always starts in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act."