David Wilkerson Today
A Ministry of World Challenge
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014
CHANGE ME, LORD!
by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 ”“ April 27, 2011]
I am not against Christian counseling. Many people are responding to the
counseling they are getting, and it is healing their lives, marriages and
homes. Indeed, counseling has become a major ministry in the church of Jesus
Christ. Almost every large congregation in America has at least one full-time
counselor on staff and here at Times Square Church, we use a number of
counselors.
But I see more and more troubled Christians who don’t respond at all to the
counseling they receive. They may be ministered to for weeks, even months, with
no results. A pastor or counselor can take them step by step through the
Scriptures, showing them the clear truth of God’s Word. He can tell them,
"Here is what God says about your problem. He says you’re supposed to do
this and this.” He confronts them with the reality that if they don’t
forsake their sin, they will incur God’s judgment.
Yet none of this counsel registers. Why? There is a spiritual veil over the
eyes of these people. They have a terrible blindness to their own guilt and
need to change.
Since I began pastoring, I’ve been caught in the middle of many family feuds
and I can testify that few of these wars are ever resolved outside of
supernatural intervention. Why? Because everybody wants the other person to
change.
One party tells me, "Why is he so stubborn? It’s awful. He needs to
change.” Then I hear something similar from the other party: "How can she
be so hard-hearted? She knows I’m doing the best I can. Is this what I get
for being kind to her?”
It’s always the other person’s fault, the other one who needs to change.
That is why I believe no amount of counseling will have an impact until God’s
people resolve something. We all have to make this our sincere, daily prayer:
"O God, change me.”
We spend far too much time praying, "God, change my circumstances; change my
coworkers; change my family situation; change the conditions in my life.” Yet
we seldom pray this most important prayer: "Change me, Lord. The real trouble
isn’t my spouse, my sibling, my friend. I’m the one who stands in need of
prayer.”
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (changed) by the
renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
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