Setting The Right Course

Everyone needs change but most of us find change hard to implement. We know we’re not eating healthy, praying adequately, or reading our Bible enough. We find ourselves worrying, have fear and anxiety about the future, or thinking wrong thoughts. Change in areas like these would be nice but are seemingly too tiresome to consistently work on. Afterall, they are just little things—things not that bad; “minor inconveniences.”

Song of Solomon 2:15 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, … (NKJ)

You may be thinking, “I don’t even know where to begin!” Start small. Start with teaching your mouth to say the right things.

James 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! (NKJ)

While your thoughts and your emotions are impacted by the words of others and the pressures of life, your own words are a result of what you have placed in your heart. Your heart could be compared to a large ship on the ocean that turns slowly when a new course is set.

 James 3:4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. (NKJ)

To bring about lasting change, your words must align with what God says about you. When He says in His Word that He will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5), when He says in His Word that He will protect you (Psalm 121:7-8), when He says in His Word that He will heal your broken heart (Luke 4:18), you must choose to align your words with His words. Not your feelings; not the circumstances; not what others say—choose to agree with God. Not just mentally; verbally also.

Psalm 107:20 He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (NKJ)

Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (NKJ)

Proverbs 4:20-23 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes: keep them in the midst of your heart: 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. (NKJ) (Attention = A deliberate, concentrated listening that issues in an appropriate response.)

In the beginning of this process, it is usually not easy to do, because your heart has not been established. It is as though you are at the helm of a ship, and you turn the small rudder (your tongue) in the direction you want to go. At first you see no change in the direction of the ship (your heart), but as you continue to keep the rudder turned in the correct direction, gradually the ship changes course.

2 Timothy 1:13 “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (NKJ).

It is at this point the Bible tells us that faith becomes evident when, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Instead of having to think about the rudder to set the course, the rudder is following the course that has been established. In other words, when you choose to agree with God by speaking faith filled words, they will become a normal pattern of speech instead of negative unproductive words.

To change course means a change of belief, words, and lifestyle. To maintain course, a person must only watch for veering off the set course and when it is noticed, make the slight adjustments necessary to get back on course. The momentum of the ship helps to keep the rudder straight.

Too often people change course, but then become complacent and tend to forget, or just ignore, the job of maintaining course. This is why weight loss is such a big industry. People go on a crash diet because they discover they are overweight and off course. Because they are off course, their health and self-worth are in decay. When the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change, action begins.

While on the journey to lose weight, everything is monitored even to the smallest detail. There is a goal. But all too often when the goal is reached and time has passed, monitoring is abandoned and slowly but steadily the ship gets off course and the weight slowly comes back.

So is it with the spiritual disciplines in our lives. The spiritual realm doesn’t have the limitations of this world. But they are limited by our flesh in this sense: Our minds (thoughts) are the gate keeper to what we believe and receive from God. We restrict spiritual growth (change) by our words cultivated by the thoughts and intents of our heart which can only be changed by the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (NKJ)

When our words change and as a result our life changes, we must maintain a pattern of good words in order to maintain our course to the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams. Get into agreement with God. Say what He Says and set your course aright.