Analyze This...

This morning I read the book of Ecclesiasties. I was so blessed with a verse. This verse was what I needed, at the exact time I needed it!

Ecclesiastes 8:1

How wonderful to be wise,

to analyze and interpret things.

Wisdom lights up a person’s face,

softening its harshness.

I am what I would call a... deep thinker. I ponder. I dwell. I analyze.

I have had some say that I should stop trying to analyze everything, and really.......those comments hurt my fellings.

But being the pleaser I am.....
I prayed. "Lord, I need to stop analyzing everything.... I need to depend on you. Just go with the flow.... yada yada yada......."  But really I was still hurt by these words.... I have to CHANGE?......because others saw this character trait in me as a bad thing????

But this was WHO I AM. Didn't God make me? Was I not created with the personality HE loved.

I know this.............  GOD LOVES ME............ so why do I always feel as though I am having to CHANGE to accomodate what OTHERS want me to be?

When I began to think about changing who I am............... Was it for myself? Was it for others? Why did I feel this need to CHANGE?

Praying about this, God revealed what change He wanted to see happen in my life. It was not for anyone else, but for myself....................for my growth................ in my walk with Christ.

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

My favorite translation of this verse if from the Amplified Bible:

2Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

You know.... reading this verse in Ecclesiates this morning, I was reassurred AGAIN by God's word (truth) that God make me, just like He wanted me to be. I have quirks. I have characteristics that may not mesh with everyone, but those who love me will accept me for WHO I AM, not what they can change me into.

God loves me. Yep.              

He has changed me by renewing my spirit, giving me hope, filling me with His love and breathing a fresh new life into me. So, if I ponder, dwell, or analyze..... it has been at becoming the person IN CHRIST that God has wanted me to be. It has been therefore, A GOOD THING!