Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - David Stoop Dr.

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100 pages

English

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Did you know most of our patterns of behavior are set by the time we are six years old? No wonder it's so hard to change! Dr. David Stoop shows readers that the true way to lasting change is in the renewing of our minds, which we accomplish when we faithfully read God's Word and meditate on it daily. He clearly shows how to move from fear to love, from resentment to gratitude, from lust to purity, from loneliness to connection, from idolatry to contentment, and from mistrust to trust. Anyone eager to find change that lasts will welcome this practical and encouraging message.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Popular psychology

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	19 juin 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493414901
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0173€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2014 by Dr. David Stoop
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Spire edition published 2018
Previously printed under the title Rethink How You Think
Ebook edition created 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1490-1
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
The author is represented by and this book is published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., www.wordserveliterary.com.
To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories with the author, some details and names have been changed.
All italics used in Scripture are the author’s emphasis.
Epigraph
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Epigraph 5
Part 1 9
1. The Choice between Two Paths 11
2. The Physiology of Change 31
3. The ABCs of a Renewed Mind 51
4. God’s Plan for Our Transformation 67
Part 2 87
5. Moving from Fear to Love 89
6. Moving from Anger to Forgiveness 107
7. Moving from Loneliness to Connection 131
8. Moving from Lust to Intimacy 151
9. Moving from Modern Idolatry to Contentment 175
10. Moving from Life’s Trials to Joy 195
Afterword 213
Notes 217
About the Author 225
Back Ads 227
Back Cover 232
Part 1

The unifying word for our world today is stress . It is a common condition that affects us all, regardless of age. We want to be in control and we don’t want to worry, but it seems that peace eludes us and stress overwhelms us. As Christians, we want the peace that Scripture describes as that which surpasses all understanding, but the harder we try to find it, the more we do not experience it. Why would the apostle Paul write so much about that kind of peace in the book of Philippians? What are we missing here? Why would he tell us we are to renew our minds in order to find that kind of peace? How does one go about such a process?
Paul gives us the outline in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5. He uses the metaphor of a battleground. We are to battle against the proud arguments that set themselves against God. Paul is echoing a theme found throughout the Bible—that there are two paths open to us. On one path, we believe those proud arguments against God, and on the other path, we think God’s way. But how can we change paths?
The work being done by today’s brain scientists can give us added insight into ways we can rethink how we think, and in doing so, we can unlock the power that God has made available to us when we hide his Word in our heart.
Part 1 describes some of the incredible things our brains can do—all of which are part of God’s design. Like the psalmist David, you will be amazed at how wonderfully God has made each of us.
1 The Choice between Two Paths
The day I became a new father, I made a vow. Our first son had just been born, and I can remember it as if it were yesterday. After leaving the hospital, I parked the car and was walking to our apartment. Filled with joy, I exclaimed, “I’ve got a son! Wow!” My next thought was, And I’ m going to have a different relationship with him than my father had with me. I made a serious vow that afternoon to change something about which I cared deeply.
As time passed, I remembered my vow. Over the years, I did all kinds of things with my firstborn, and later with his two brothers, that my father had never done with me. I remained determined to do things differently. Though my father took me to church, and faithfully at that, he never came to any school event. He never let me help him do work, like painting, around the house. He was always too busy, too impatient, or too tired. I understood his resources were limited because he worked long, hard hours in a factory. But understanding that didn’t change the hurt and unfulfilled desire in my heart to have had a dad who was involved in my life. I felt as though he didn’t accept me as a son.
It wasn’t until my oldest son was graduating from high school that I realized I had failed miserably in fulfilling my vow. Though I had been involved in all kinds of ways in my sons’ lives—going to all their school and sporting events, even coaching their Little League team—I really hadn’t changed the pattern of my father’s relationship with me: I had stayed emotionally disconnected from my sons. Though it appeared different on the outside, on an emotional level my relationship with them was no different than the empty relationship I had had with my own dad. My vow hadn’t worked!
I was frustrated because I knew the verse in Scripture that says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17). Where was this new person I was supposed to be? I had placed my trust in Christ the summer after I graduated from high school. Then, soon after my first son was born, I entered the ministry, leading a parachurch youth program. Remembering my vow to be a different kind of father, I had prayed to be transformed.
As my sons were growing, I was busy doing “ministry” with other people’s sons and daughters, unable to recognize the ways I’d imitated my father’s pattern of non-involvement. Why wasn’t I able to be different in the way I related with my sons? Why, even though I had made a very serious vow and worked hard at keeping it, did nothing change?
Have you ever had that kind of frustration in your life? Have you ever questioned why having a relationship with Christ really didn’t change some important areas of your life?
Part of this struggle led me to write a book titled You Are What You Think . Over the years a lot of people have let me know that they have been helped by that little book. It says that if we can change the way we think, we can change the way we live. What’s good news for some, though, sounds like bad news for others. Like me, many have discovered firsthand that changing the way you think and act is not always an easy task! We may want to change our thoughts and the resulting behaviors—especially those thoughts that lead to sinful behaviors—and we may even succeed for a short time. But then we seem to fall back into the old patterns again, frustrated at the lack of transformation in our lives. There has to be more. To get at the “more,” we need to define just what it is that we need to change in order for our lives to be transformed.
Is Change Possible?
Have you ever vowed to change something in your life? Yet no matter how committed you were to making that change, nothing really changed, or the changes you did make didn’t last very long. As a counselor, I’m often asked, “Can people really change?” Many today are frustrated when they’re not able to bring about lasting changes in important areas of their own lives. Until recently, our inability to make changes was usually chalked up to weak willpower. Today, though, research is showing that the strength of our willpower is not the issue. Everyone’s willpower eventually fails, and the old problems simply return. So then what is it that makes it so hard for us to achieve even the most desirable and critical changes in our lives?
The prophet Jeremiah gives us a vivid snapshot of how hard it is for people to change, even when they are facing disaster. He was called by God to warn the people of Israel of coming destruction. In spelling it out for his listeners as clearly as he could, Jeremiah delivered to them a universal principle. He said there were two paths—opposite paths!—open to all people, and that whether they knew it or not, they would choose one or the other. Jeremiah boldly announced, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jer. 6:16 NIV). Other translations call it the “godly way.” In other words, Jeremiah is exhorting them—and us—to choose a path carefully!
Jeremiah continues to detail the benefits of walking on this ancient path. Promising peace, he offers of the good way, “Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.” Rest for your souls! His words offer the relief for which we thirst. Two paths. We get to choose. In reality, we are choosing all the time which path to take. One path ends in destruction, and the culmination of the other ancient path is “rest for your souls.” You might be scratching your head right now and wondering, “Why would these ancient travelers not choose the good way?” But just like us, the people of Jerusalem, out of selfish desires, made the wrong choice. Because they wouldn’t change, they said to Jeremiah, “No, that’s not the road we want!” (6:16). And even though road signs all along the path they’d chosen warned “Death!” and “Destruction!”—while the road toward which Jeremiah pointed was marked “Rest” and “Peace”—they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, change paths.
It’s the choice we’ve faced since the beginning of time. Our ancestors in the Garden of Eden chose the path of disobedience, and too often we blindly follow in their steps. We read in the Bible about the transformed life, but we fail to experience it. In frustration, most of us se