You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them. (2 Timothy 3:14, NASB)
If you came to me for a golf lesson, I would talk to you about understanding your swing and about you learning the swing. There is no one best swing, but a certain set of common principles can be found in every swing on tour. So in a lesson, I would help you match your current swing with these principles—this is the swing for you.
I would ask you some questions and make some observations. What are your tendencies? What are you currently doing that causes you to fall short of your potential? What changes do you need to become a better player? Then we would make some adjustments, moving your present swing closer to the swing. Hopefully during the lesson, you will hit a few balls better than you ever have, and you will buy into the changes.
I’m praying with you that your confidence in the new life you’ve been given increases every day.The goal is for you to learn the swing, so when you practice on your own, you know where you are trying to get to. You need to have faith that the changes you are making are the right ones, and nothing should change your mind. You shouldn’t be hitting it well today and worry it might leave you tomorrow. You are either swinging at it correctly or you are not. You need to be “convinced of” your new changes.
The same holds true for our life in Christ. No one should be able to cause us to question what we believe in a way that leads to crippling doubt. We have the best teacher. He knew the life we would be leading today, and he knows what lies ahead. We just need to stay in the game and know we are headed in the right direction.
One helpful step is to remember that our old life really was no good. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that “we were dead in our transgressions” (Ephesians 2:5). Dead! We do well when we remind ourselves that no one wants to return to death. We’ve been given life in Christ, so let’s live!
Still, as we move forward, we need to be mindful of the tendencies of the past. In golf, it could be open shoulders, a strong grip, a quick backswing, or poor thinking. We need to continue to practice and replace the old with the new. In life, it is exactly the same. Certain habits from our old life can keep us from reaching our potential in our new life. What might we do to replace these?
Here’s an example. Let’s say that one of the marks of your old life was a critical spirit. You had a tendency to view people as weak and assess their actions negatively. A critical spirit lacks mercy. But in that same passage to the Ephesians, Paul wrote that God is rich in mercy, which is the reason he moved us from the death of our sins to aliveness in Christ. Therefore, when that old critical, merciless spirit begins to stir in us, we lean on the life we have been given in Christ, a life of real, God-given mercy. Instead of identifying and criticizing what is bad in another, we act with patience and affirm the Christ-reflecting attributes that leak out of even the most challenging people.
I’m praying with you that your confidence in the new life you’ve been given increases every day. This is the abundant life Jesus was talking about!
—
Bill Euler
October 23, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.