Unchained

When I rewind my mind back to the days before I started living my life for Jesus, I am amazed by the levels of change that have taken place.  Thinking back, I was struggling and chasing after the wrong things to find temporal enjoyment that would simply never last.  It wasn’t until I found myself following God’s perfect plan for me that I started to see a lot of those things fall away.  

The Bible tells us this in Romans 12:2: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” So, what does this mean to someone who is just starting to take their faith seriously?  

Let’s unpack this verse together.  The first thing this scripture says is, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world...” which many people struggle with.  I remember saying, “I could never give up drinking or tobacco, those things will always be part of me.” That couldn’t be further from the truth; I used to declare incorrectly that I was a person who couldn’t be changed, even by God.  Don’t try to put a limitation on God, He has a little more power than you do.

For me, I thought the hardest thing was going to be giving up tobacco.  I remember praying and telling God that if I needed to live my life without tobacco, He would have to take it from me.  I had tried to quit before, even after getting scary medical diagnosis and stern talks from the doctor and I simply couldn’t separate myself from it.  Every time I tried, I found an excuse to go back to it after a few days.

This is where we talk about the God moment– I woke up one day and realized that I hadn’t used tobacco for three days.  I hadn’t made a conscious effort to stop, I just realized that it had been days since I used it.  As I was processing what had happened, I realized that God was up to something.  Romans 12:2 told me not to copy what the world does, but I didn’t think I was able to do that, because I wasn’t.  What I was able to do was let God transform me.  Even if you think you might not be strong enough to stay away from certain worldly things in the days or even months after making the conscious effort to follow Jesus, if you just surrender your future to Him, and let Him transform you, you will be transformed.  If you show up and remain open to His will, He will transform you into who He has called you to be.  The important part is showing up and filling yourself with the things of God until the worldly things no longer fit.  Once you have, the desire for things that pull you away from Him will start to disappear.

You might be thinking this sounds way too easy, similar to a get-rich-quick scheme, but hang in there, God plays the long game.  For me, God used that experience of quitting tobacco to build my faith so that I could face the next thing that wasn’t so easy.  I grew up with the idea that drinking alcohol was a very normal thing to do.  If you look at the world around you, I’m not the only one that grew up with this idea.  I actually considered drinking to be one of my favorite hobbies at one point.  I made my own beer, listened to beer-making podcasts and nearly every activity or function had me in pursuit of trying a new type of beer that I’d never had. Before coming to Church, this particular hobby had become a destructive pattern that left me feeling guilty and disgusted with myself. Before long, I was also drinking in the basement after my family went to sleep at night, every night.

However, after I started following Jesus more closely, I thought that I would just have a supernatural change and I could responsibly enjoy drinking while remaining in control and not falling into the trap of becoming a drunkard.  I remember the first sign this was sorely not the case. I was watching “The Chosen” and enjoying my favorite beverage.  I woke up the next morning and got sick because I had drank too much of it; it was evident that I wasn’t in control of this thing.  I continued to test whether or not I’d hit that spiritual maturity level where I could responsibly enjoy alcohol but ultimately it never happened.  

Eventually, I  had an experience with alcohol where I felt an extreme conviction from the Holy Spirit that I needed to hang it up for good.  I had another night where I thought I was keeping myself out of trouble, but I went overboard yet again.  The enemy was telling me that  I had sinned and separated myself from God and I felt an incredible darkness come over me.  I had let something in and come against who God had called me to be.  I felt ashamed and I knew that there was nothing that I could do to continue my relationship with alcohol.  I realized at that time that I had a problem.  It was then that I pressed into God fully on that topic and fervently declared that it was over.  I was no longer going to allow something to stand between me and my relationship with God.

Jesus was waiting in that moment, even though I let my guard down and made a mistake, He stepped in to help me up.  Up to that point, I wasn’t willing to let Him transform my relationship with drinking.  It was hard for me to let go, but I did finally see the destruction in those behaviors and make the willful decision to turn from them, for good.  Praise God that when we decide to finally let Him, He transforms us. You won’t be free of something until you’ve decided to let God take it from you.  Sometimes that can be hard, but it is so worth it.

Today, life is so much different. I just came back from a work trip to Las Vegas where I spent a few days surrounded by the exact things that used to pull me away from God’s path.  They didn’t pull me away though because I was prepared: the entire plane ride I listened to worship music and read a book for CLA on Christian disciplines.  In the book, it talked about praying out scripture as a way to meditate on the Word.  Every morning when I woke up and had my quiet time with the Lord, I did this meditation exercise by praying through Ephesians 6 on the full armor of God.  I was able to be in the city of complete debauchery but yet stay on God’s narrow path while I was there.  

I did not conform to the patterns of the world any longer, because I let God transform my heart.  Because of this, my mind was also transformed.  I no longer desired the drinking or tobacco like I would have a few years ago.  Now, I was more focused on God’s will for me, which is good, pleasing, and perfect.  If you need to be transformed, seek God with your whole heart, and He will change it, purify it, and set you straight.  I promise you’ll be so glad that you did.