{"id":1438,"date":"2020-11-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2020-09-25T11:42:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T01:42:38","slug":"shun-unhealthy-self-focus-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/shun-unhealthy-self-focus-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Shun Unhealthy Self-Focus (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does God expect us to work on growth and self-improvement? Yes! But just as examining yourself is futile, so is trying to change if it keeps you self-focused and defeated. The Bible\u2019s path to change is to turn away from self and focus on Christ. Paul says, <i>\u2018We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory\u2026 by the Spirit of the Lord.\u2019<\/i> (2\u00a0Corinthians\u00a03:18<sup>\u00a0NKJV<\/sup>) <\/p>\n<p>God isn\u2019t interested in improved flesh. In His eyes \u2018improved flesh\u2019 is still flesh. He\u2019s in the character-transformation business, not the self-improvement business. All your self-improvement strategies can\u2019t transform your old self-nature. Only God, <i>\u2018by the Spirit\u2019,<\/i> can make you more Christ-like. As you <i>\u2018behold<\/i> [look at and study] <i>as in a mirror<\/i> [the Word of God]\u2019 you become <i>\u2018transformed into the same image<\/i> [the image of God you\u2019re looking at] <i>from glory to glory<\/i> [grade to grade]\u2019. It doesn\u2019t happen because of your grit, but because of His grace. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018So what will happen to my flesh?\u2019 you ask. God\u2019s ultimate plan is to replace it and give you a new heavenly body. That\u2019s why Paul writes: <i>\u2018Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.\u2019<\/i> No altering, adjusting, and patching-up allowed\u2014you must \u2018throw it off\u2019! <\/p>\n<p>Like a lobster growing and shedding the confinement of its old shell, as you focus on and fellowship with Christ, you are released from the dominance of your old nature and grow into your new one. You\u2019re transformed\u2014from the inside out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does God expect us to work on growth and self-improvement? Yes! But just as examining yourself is futile, so is trying to change if it keeps you self-focused and defeated. The Bible\u2019s path to change is to turn away from self and focus on Christ. Paul says, \u2018We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}