By Pastor ANDREW FARLAND
CHANGE THE INSIDE TO CHANGE THE OUTSIDE
Some people find that they feel better and have more energy when they eat the right balance of healthy foods. After all, “You are what you eat.” Your health and well-being, however, goes far beyond the fuel you put in your body.
You’re also what you think. The Bible reminds us , “As a man thinketh, so is he.”
Your internal thoughts influence what you think, do and say. They drive your actions. The reality is that whatever is happening on the outside of us is happening on the inside too. And of course, whatever happens on the inside shows up on the outside. When it does, you may decide you need to change something.
The easiest way to make a change isn’t through action. Instead, it comes from changing our perspective on the inside. To effect change on the outside, we must change the way we see God and how we relate to him.
If it’s been a while since you connected with God, then reconnect with Him and abide with Him. The flower and the fruit are possible only because the branch takes its nourishment from the vine.
God is the vine and you are the branch. As long as you’re connected, you’ll bear good fruit in your life.
Don’t start a plan for doing great things without changing the inside and focusing on what really matters.
Change your inside, fix your perspective. Increase your gratitude. Connect with God. In just a couple of moments of silence Listen and receive God’s word to be moved and changed. Start on the inside and your actions will produce positive results because you worked first on your perspective.
If you change only what’s on your outside, you’ll be like the Pharisees in the Bible.
They were “whitewashed tombs:” clean on the outside but full of dead matter on the inside. Similarly, many modern Christians think changing their actions will make them right with God.
Your actions are not enough. You must have the Holy Spirit inside you.
The Old Testament says that a true Jew is a Jew on the inside. Today we could say that a true Christian is a Christian on the inside — pure and right. If you are a Christian on the inside, you will manifest Christian thoughts and actions on the outside.
Pure motives produce pure actions. Change the thoughts inside you to change your actions the outside.
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Matthew 12:34
Be encouraged today because God is with you.
