Your Personality Rocks!

Are there any parts of your personality that you wish were different but you feel that you have to settle with them? "That's just the way I am!" Do you worry, lust, complain, get cranky, doubt? Do you find yourself cynical or overly critical about everything and everyone? I know - I have had problems with all the above. But these stones can be removed. You do not have to live with them!

Referring to Israel, God's beloved vineyard, Isaiah wrote: "My loved One had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest of vines." (Isaiah 5) God is in the business of removing these things that you think you have to live with.

I met a lady the other night that reminded me of this fact and her testimony encouraged me to keep going. She's 85 years old and she told me that a long time ago God touched her in a wonderful way when she was out in the woods praying and everything changed. She couldn't explain it, but a joy came upon her that hasn't left over the past 50 years, despite hard and lean times. The thing that struck me is that people say to her, "Well, you're just naturally nice." She told me that this isn't true - that before her touch from heaven, she was not like that in any way. She was a Christian, but a joyless one. God changed her personality! His touch made her into the person she is - it isn't her natural state!

I am so encouraged by this and I hope you are too. We don't have to settle for "That's just the way I am" anymore. We need to pray pressing prayer that allows God to change us and take away our cynicism, our war-like Christianity, our competitive Christianity, our lack of peace and contentment. Our 'personality rocks' will be removed when we ask for daily bread.

Remember this key, life-changing verse: "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" (Matthew 7:9) Those are the words of Christ, promising us that He is in the stone-removal business. This is a verse that promises His Spirit upon all those that will ask in faith and press into the deeper life with Him. He will change you.