“For I am the LORD, I do not change [but remain faithful to My covenant with you]; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.”
— Malachi 3:6 (AMP)
Everything we take in eventually changes us, for better or worse. Do you remember the moment you realized that Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real? All visions of who you believed them to be dissipated and you made an internal shift. Your belief changed.
Or maybe as a youngster, you had a hero – your mom, dad or someone else – you believed they could do anything! They could take on the world and win! Then in a moment of life experience, you saw things differently and though you appreciated them, there was a shift in your beliefs even if you were not fully aware of it.
Some of you know that I have had physical issues to contend with all of my life. As a result, the wallpaper statement rings true for me. Because I didn’t see things in my physical being unfold as I thought they would, or as I thought I believed, without realizing it, my heart was forming beliefs about God and about myself which were not scriptural.
I had an incident back in my early 20’s and it revealed my heart beliefs about God. At the time, I was a counselor at a kids’ Christian camp. A young boy attended the camp meeting who had recently lost his sight. An invitation was given for those wanting healing and he went forward. This was a very familiar scenario for me.
I remember well my statement to my co-counselor. It was something like…. “He needs to be careful about going forward so eagerly because he just might be disappointed.” That statement revealed my belief about God. It showed that I believed God could possibly change, sometimes He healed and sometimes He didn’t.
What happened here? I changed who I believed God to be to fit my beliefs, rather than changing my beliefs to FIT WHO GOD IS. My experience was that God is inconsistent. He may choose to heal or He may not.
My explanation as to why I didn’t see healing in my own life was this – God has His reasons and I will never know for sure. That is a wrong belief! God has revealed to us who He is through His names, the life of Jesus and the Word. HE DOES NOT CHANGE. Either He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord my Healer, or He is not. He does not waffle between healing or not healing.
When I came face to face with this wrong belief in my heart, I felt like I had just been slapped in the face. I was astounded to realize what my heart really believed! My head declared I believed in God as my Healer. Yet, I had many experiences which countered the truth of who God is and shaped my heart beliefs. I was totally unaware of this happening.
We have many wrong, religious beliefs about God in our heart whether we admit it or not. They define us and how we view God. They also determine the pathways of our lives.
God is good. He does not change with the shifting shadows. He is who He declares Himself to be and only that. So the question is, “Are you changing who you believe God to be to fit your experiences and current beliefs? Or are you open to assess these traditional and experiential beliefs to fit who God declares and shows Himself to be.
“Don’t change who God is to fit your beliefs. Change your beliefs to fit who God is.”
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See As He Sees