Your Unlimited Life (10 page)

RENEWAL TRUTH

I am the righteousness of God

in Christ Jesus.

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

Yelling at your wife constantly is a bad habit, in order to stop you must replace the way in which you communicate by using a nicer tone. Rather than stopping the negative cold, we want to replace it. You can replace overeating with, “I’m going to get healthy”; anger with, “I’m going to start being kind”; and cursing with, “I’m going to speak words of grace.” If you focus on what you are stopping, you will probably never stop it.

A wise coach doesn’t say to his player, “Stop swinging the bat that way.” Instead he says, “Swing the bat at this level.” Get the person focused on what you want, not on what you don’t want.

Philippians 4:8 says:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.

Notice, it doesn’t state all the things that you are not supposed to think about. It lists the things you are to focus on. Breaking a habit is not stopping something as much as it is starting something.

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Some of the keys to breaking old habits and building new ones are:

Key #1: Desire something different.

Desire sparks change. I desire windows that are not yellow from smoke and fingers and teeth that are not stained. I desire lungs that are not black. When you desire something you didn’t desire before, you are ready to break an old habit and start a new one. If there is no desire, nothing is going to happen.

Psalm 37:4 says:

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

When you desire to be healthy, you will begin to change your eating and exercise habits. As long as there is no desire for a long life of health and fitness, you can buy the books, tapes, equipment, programs, and vitamins, but there will be no change. The beginning of your change is the desire to change.

Key #2: Begin to picture yourself with that new thought, action, and lifestyle.

The hardest thing for me to do when I became a Christian was to see myself never using drugs, never drinking alcohol, and never having to go to a chemical substance for some kind of feeling. I was a Christian and hadn’t used drugs for almost a year before I could really see myself making that change.

Now the difference between me and most of the people around me at that time is, they weren’t working on a new picture, so they lived drug-free for a year and then went right back to it. What about the person who loses fifty pounds and then gains sixty? They never get a new picture. They may change for a season, but they never get a new picture of themselves in their mind.

For almost a year I worked on a new perspective of myself: “I’ll never smoke another cigarette; I’ll never smoke another joint; I’ll never snort another line of coke; I’ll never stick another needle in my arm. I will be free from that.” This means, “I’ll find my satisfaction from other sources. I will build new and better relationships.”

Most people never get to the place where they get a “new picture” of themselves. Though they may change for a season, without a new picture, they go right back to their old habits.

RENEWAL TRUTH

I am framing my life with what God says about me

in His Word. He says He has a future and a hope for me,

filled with peace and free of evil.

(Hebrews 11:3; Jeremiah 29:11)

It’s like the guy with a temper. He tries to convince himself that he is not going to shout, yell, or scream. He fully intends to stay cool and calm and trains himself to hide all emotion and passion within. He eventually has an emotional breakdown or suffers depression because he didn’t get a new picture of himself. He held his feelings inside. What he should have done was to say, “I’m a kind, thoughtful person. I see myself communicating, not yelling. I see myself listening and understanding, not angrily controlling. I see myself building intimacy in relationships, not pushing others away.” This new picture of himself could have enabled him to walk free of anger rather than to keep it bottled up inside.

For lifestyle issues, we are talking about months of consistency changing the way we think and months of looking at the “new you.”

Out of nearly 3,000 young people who entered the drug rehab program, I was one of the few who completed it. Today I can count less than a dozen of those people who stayed clean. The others didn’t change their picture of themselves. Changing the picture of your life is as simple as viewing a new tomorrow. Your unlimited life is on the other side of the eraser and new canvas. Joshua 1:8 is the Scripture for Key #2:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Key #3: Talk about the way you want to be, not the way you are.

Start communicating in a new way. Instead of saying things like, “It makes me so mad,” say, “I am beginning to understand another point of view.” You have to speak new words before you will get new feelings. Nothing “makes” you anything. You have the power to choose how you feel. You have to say things like, “I used to live for my next meal, but now food isn’t that important to me.” Your desire may be that you are desiring something to eat, but your words are, “You know, food isn’t that important to me anymore.”

Jesus said:

For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Mark 11:23

What have you been saying? “I can’t believe how hard it is. This diet is killing me.” If that’s not what you want, don’t say it. “I’ve been trying to quit smoking, but I’m telling you, every time I look around, somebody is lighting up, and it is driving me crazy.” If that’s not what you want, don’t say it. What you need to say is, “To quit smoking is easy.” You may not feel that way. But you say, “To quit smoking is no big deal. I’ll whip it easily.”
Start speaking what you desire to achieve and you will have success.

RENEWAL TRUTH

Like the example God gave me,

I will call those things which do not exist as though they

did. They will manifest because God cannot lie.

He will make good on all of His promises.

(Romans 4:17; Numbers 23:19)

You can say, “Losing weight is easy for me, because my metabolism is right. I am designed to lose weight and I can take it off!” In their struggle to lose weight, some people lay hands on the scale and believe for the demons to be cast out of the scale! Others say, “I didn’t eat anything for three months and I gained two pounds.” Or, “Everything I eat goes right on my belly!” We’re not talking about just stopping something. We are talking about replacing the negative with something new and different. If you make a decision to turn the power to remain negative around into the power to be positive, your entire life will change.