Glorifying God happens when the focus of life changes from living for my pleasure and glory to living for His pleasure and glory. It demands that my heart change from a “me” centered focus to a God-centered focus.
In order to accomplish this goal, changes must take place.
The first change that must take place is in the heart itself. We cannot change our own heart. Because our heart is deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9), we cannot possibly know the depths of its depravity, nor can we conjure up enough goodness within ourselves to change in a real and lasting way. We may have tried this before through a New Year’s resolution or a “self-help” group of some kind. Our behavior may have changed for a while or to some degree, but studies bear out the fact that merely altering behavior does not bring about lasting and permanent change.
We have been divinely enabled to change, to be holy, to live the life God has called us to live! I hope this causes us to shout, “Praise the Lord!”
Often when a person has a problem, their only goal is to feel better. They mistakenly believe that if they feel better or happy that is good enough. We see this often in our counseling ministry. Receiving “good counseling” is equated to what they feel like emotionally during the counseling process. If the emotions are good, then it has been successful. When this is the motive, all to often the problems that brought them to counseling reappear and their sorrow deepens to hopelessness. This is because the goal of the counseling is off-base.
The goal of all counseling is change, but not change in circumstances or change in feelings. The goal of biblical counseling is heart level change that brings about a life that glorifies God.
This means God’s priorities become our priorities. What He says in His Word is important to Him and becomes important to us. These changes take place in the inner man before they are evidenced in behavior.
Labels: Heart, Sanctification