The Courage to Change, Sylvia Morales

The Courage to Change                        Sylvia Morales                     July 11, 2010

What I wanted to do is that I wanted to talk to you about the Courage to Change. It is really interesting to me that the Lord would give me this word because… [well] to give it to you… I thought that He was giving it to me because I had asked him not too long ago to help me to see things in my own life that needed to be different. When I know [that] the Lord is speaking to me… a lot of times what I like to do is… I like to run in the other direction because I am thinking that “If I am over there then He can’t see me!” BUT we all know that [that] is not true.

I wanted to do a little exercise… If everybody could [just] close their eyes… just for a moment and [just] take a moment to think what you see… picture in your mind of what it means to you to have courage. When you have that thought I [just] want you to hold it and keep it in the back of your mind. You can [now] open your eyes.

When I think of courage I immediately think of the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz because I think of me. I see the Cowardly Lion and he is trying to… throughout the movie he tries to show everybody that he has courage and he tries to show everybody that he can be strong and courageous. Most of the time… as he is doing that… what ends up happening is that people [just] simply don’t believe him. [And] at the end of the movie it takes someone else to show him that he actually had the ability and the power inside of himself all of the time… he [just] didn’t realize it. [So] he essentially had a revelation that someone else had given him.

Change and courage starts with a decision. In the beginning… in the front of the Book in Genesis… God speaks [and] the earth in all of its beauty is formed; it is created. In Genesis 1… if you skim through the first parts of that chapter you will see a lot of times where it says, “God said…” and ‘God speaks…” and “God created…” When you move to Genesis 2:7… In the NIV it says, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” [And] I know growing up in church that I have heard that a lot of times [and] I never [actually] looked at the Word. As I was doing this I read it again and it says, “The Lord God formed the man…” and in all of the other places everything else that was created He either ‘spoke’ or He ‘said’… the heavens were created… the creatures were created. So, I decided [that] maybe it means something! Being created… as the beasts of the field and the heavens were… is pretty awesome BUT to be formed by God Almighty is to take one step closer to amazing! In the Hebrew ‘formed’ means… to determine… to fashion… to form… to frame… [and] to purpose. As the only part of creation made in the image of God [that is us] we were formed with purpose and a free will. In the midst of our free will is our ability to make our own decisions. When we make a decision to be ‘born again’ it is of our own free will… it is a change that happens… a decision that happens in our heart… so once our decision is made we then need to make a movement. The Word constantly talks about how faith without works is dead… there are a lot of times where faith and doing something is interconnected; it is always together. [And] when I thought about it… I was thinking about something that someone has told me about a little riddle: There were five frogs sitting on a log and one of them makes a decision to change. They [then] ask you how many frogs are left sitting on that log.  My immediate reaction was, “If one made a decision to change… or a decision to jump off… then there is four frogs left!” BUT if there were four frogs left then it wasn’t a very good riddle… that would be [kind of] dumb…. Obviously there are four frogs… if you take one from five that leaves four! BUT the point of the riddle is that there are still five frogs left because one of them ONLY made a decision and he didn’t follow that decision through… he didn’t move [which was very important].

If we could all turn to Matthew 14:22… I am not sure what page number that is in the white Bible… I didn’t look… It starts at verse 22 and says,

²²Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

This is where Jesus is getting His strength and His direction from.

When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was already a considerable distance^[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

 ²⁵During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

 ²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

 ²⁸"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

And in one simple word He said, “Come!”

²⁹"Come," he said.

   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus

In this passage Peter makes a decision. When he sees Jesus walking on the water he makes a decision to move from his comfort zone… which is the boat… into the stormy waters… in the direction of Jesus. Peter first asked Jesus to identify himself and then told Jesus to tell him [Peter] to come out onto the water [and] into the storm. This decision… [and] these steps are steps of movement based on a decision to make a change. Change is all about moving away from your comfort zone! What is very important in this passage is what transpires between Matthew 14: 26-29. In verse 26 it says,

²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

Decisions for change can happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the reason behind the change is not always clear and it is not always easily identifiable. When the disciples looked out onto the water in the midst of the storm they did not immediately recognize Jesus. Maybe it was because He was walking on water… I am not sure that [that] happens a lot BUT it is pretty cool. Maybe it was because they weren’t looking for Him! When we don’t recognize in the midst of the storm what is going on in our own lives that change is about to happen or that it is going to occur we become fearful and we don’t see that Jesus is laying before us a miracle… a miracle that can happen in our life!

In verse 27 it says,

²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

Sometimes we fail to realize that God instantly knows a change is going to happen in our lives and that… as human beings who were formed with a spirit… we have a mind… we have a body… we have a will… we have emotions… we can sometimes get a little ‘dazed and confused’ so He identifies… and we identify that there is not a need to be afraid because God identifies Himself immediately! It says:

²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them…

So essentially God is saying, “Don’t freak-out” [which] I know that He has to say to me…. “Don’t freak-out… it is me. I am here with you… just stay still and breathe!”

In verse 28 it says,

²⁸"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

Peter is OK with the possibility that maybe this is the Lord walking on the water. So, sometimes in the midst of change we are thinking, “OK, alright… maybe this is something that God is doing in our lives. Maybe this is a change that is allowed [and] is about to happen [and] is supposed to happen!” In the process of change we have to consider the possibility that God is going to be in places that we least expect Him to be… Not because He is unaware or surprised with that change occurring BUT because He wants to show us how to focus on Him in a different way than we did last time. We don’t always have the same circumstances… so in the process of this we have to learn that our focus needs to stay on Him; not always looking for Him in the same way that we did the last time. Peter [then] takes a minute to wait… to hear from the Lord. Remember that God holds his own Word above himself… which I always have to constantly remind myself. [And] if He holds it above himself then there must be something really important in here. God’s Word is a package that holds within it the direction that we are able to go in and the power that we are able to accomplish the ability to do it!

In verse 29…the direction that Peter is waiting for is Jesus simply saying, “Come!” It is one word… I am thinking that there is supposed to be more… there has got to be more. I mean… I am stepping out of the boat… stepping on some water… there are [like] waves everywhere… I am thinking, “Ok, there needs to be a lot more than [just] ‘come’!” BUT, God is very simple in a sense that He gives you the direction… He gives you the power… He is already ‘positive’ and ‘sure’ and ‘able’ that the direction that He is sending you in is the right direction! We are the ones who are [like], “I don’t know about that!”

What is involved in changing? First… for me… for what I believe that the Word told me is that it takes the renewing of our mind with the Word of God. I cannot tell you how many times when I have walked through life and am about to take a change and I think, “Lord, show me a verse that I can stand on” and it is always Romans 12:2… right there… in my face.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world BUT be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is… His good pleasing and perfect will.

Reading God’s Word provides us the opportunity to see ourselves the way that God sees us. We can take the Word and put it up as a mirror so that we are ‘mirrored’ by God’s beauty, God’s direction, and God’s life. When we don’t look at the Word we mirror ourselves according to the ever changing society. That is never a good way to go in direction for change.

Understanding your place in God’s family is very important. In 2 Corinthians 5: 16-17…

 ¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

In the beginning God formed us in His image BUT sin created within us… it wasn’t something that God gave us… it was something that we created within ourselves. It draws us away from Him and we think that He is not here anymore… BUT the truth is that He doesn’t go anywhere… He is just waiting for you to pay attention to see Him. Our previous standard was in the world and changes occur in our life that move us closer to the Lord and when they do that it moves us towards the light which is God. God will always move you in a direction that you are supposed to go in because He is the light and He will give you the ability to see the steps that are laid out before you. He gives us a new standard to live by… a move out of our previous comfort zone by faith… which usually involves us stepping out of our comfort zone into the area that God has designed for us in His Kingdom because we are in a new family.

A lot of times [like] when I go to the doctor he asks me about my family history… I know that they do that with everybody… they always want to know what is in your family history… Do you have high cholesterol? Do you have ‘this’? Do you have a history of any of those things? [And] in the physical we have all of that stuff BUT when we move into God’s Kingdom, God is our Father [OK] so what we have… our history is His history! It is not the history that exists in this world! We have to consider those things BUT we then [must] consider ‘What does God say about our life?’ That is a hard one for me to listen to… I will admit it.

[So] change occurs by moving towards God’s secret place and not our own. In Psalm 91: 1-2 the New King James version says:

¹ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
         Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
 ² I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
         My God, in Him I will trust.” 

Many times the secret place that we run to is that which we have created for ourselves… it is not the one that God created for us! Some versions of the Bible refer to the secret place as a shelter. Within each one of us there exists a part that we will call our own. Personally, I believe that we have something that is supposed to be for us BUT it is supposed to be for us AND God. It doesn’t mean that we have to share it with anybody… we have to share it with the Lord all of the time because He created in our heart that place that exists for Him. BUT God always sees and always knows where we go and He knows why we are going there. Most of the time this shelter that we have created exists to help us escape… and most of the time it helps to keep us to feel safe. I like feeling safe! I like running to something where I know that I feel comfortable… and most of the time that is away from people! He is able to protect us and in return we are able to call out to Him… the God of Jacob… who is the God of Refuge. He is our ‘Abba’… our Abba Father. When we are in fear… which will happen as we move out of our comfort zone… we have a very strong desire to run back to that which makes us comfortable… it relaxes us and gives us the illusion of peace.

My secret place used to take the form of alcohol. I would drink it because… at first I was like ‘everybody else is doing it… it’s going to be fun’ [right?] and then I started to realize that it numbed the pain… the pain from my own decisions that I had made. It numbed the pain from past hurts… so I started to drink it more. When my husband brought me back to church… which I didn’t want to go to… He said, “I think that it is a good idea’… I said, “I think that you are wrong’… when we went back to church I brought my Bible [you know] because I grew up in a church [and] I knew what I was supposed to do, I knew what I was supposed to say and when I was supposed to say it… BUT inside there wasn’t any difference… the difference was that I had moved away from God and I had no intention of going back BUT I thought, ‘You know what? If it will make him happy… let’s do it… whatever!’ [So] I am in there and the Lord starts speaking to me which is what I knew was going to happen if I showed up… and that is exactly what I didn’t want to happen because He had been talking BUT I had been doing well enough to say, ‘I am not listening!’ So I show up at church and the Lord starts speaking to me and He says to me, “I want you to let the alcohol go!” And He tells me that the reason why He wants me to let it go is that is my ‘secret place’… that IS NOT the secret place that He had designed for me! He designed a secret place in Him! If I had hurts then I needed to give them to Him! I didn’t want to do that because sometimes it still hurts and you are [like] “Lord, what are you doing? You say that if I give it to you it is going to go away!” Sometimes it doesn’t happen as fast as we would like it [to]. 

So, God speaks to us and He gives us the directions in His Word and provides us the ability to make ‘that’ change. He gave me… with His Word… the direction and the ability and the power to make it happen… not in my own strength BUT in Him. Change occurs when you realize that you can ask God to change or take away that which He has commanded you [us] to change. Throughout the Word we are told to make decisions by choosing life or death [in Deuteronomy]. God will leave the option open to us… which is one of the wonderful things about God… that He gave us free will and He gave us the ability to make decisions and to make changes. He will always leave the option open to us BUT in the end… we alone have to make the decisions to follow Him. He is not going to make us do something that we don’t want to do. Sometimes it feels like He is twisting our arm BUT He is not! He is telling us, “I am telling you to go ‘this’ way because it is better for you. I love you… I want you to come ‘this’ way… I will show you how to do it!”

Even though Peter called out to Jesus in the passage in Matthew he still could have changed his mind… which is something that I never thought of before. He could have stayed in the boat. Making the decision NOT to get out of the boat may have changed everything… and we may never have [even] heard of Peter… he would have never done something as wonderful and miraculous as walking on the water. Sometimes our miracles are small things [like] getting rid of alcohol… getting rid of people in your life that you know are taking you in a direction that you shouldn’t be going in… BUT you want to spend time with them because you are happy and thinking that ‘this is fun!’ BUT it is not!

Peter made the decision to follow God. When we make that decision we make a decision to follow God even when it seems safer to stay in the boat. Change occurs when we realize that change can cause fear within us BUT we simply have to do it afraid.

When I was diagnosed with cancer [2002]… I was talking to my husband [and] I told him over dinner at Denny’s [which we still haven’t gone back to yet]. In 2002 I was diagnosed with cancer… I remember listening to the doctor thinking to myself, “This guy has got to have found… this is a mistake [right]? There is no possible way that I can have cancer… I am only 24!” My family had a long history of cancer… very long… a lot of people died. I thought, “Well, this really stinks! I had just got married and now I am going to die!” I didn’t tell anyone else what I was feeling… I didn’t talk about it because I don’t like to talk about my feelings. Most of the people who know me well know that is true… I don’t like to talk about my feelings… I don’t like to cry… I don’t like to do that [kind of] emotional stuff in front of other people because I like to try and protect myself from harm and what I think could be a possible hurt. [And] one day… after my first treatment I was in a lot of pain. I couldn’t sleep… I couldn’t move my arm… I couldn’t feel my tongue… there were so many things that were going on that I couldn’t do a whole lot of things. I went in to the office into one of the spare rooms that we had in our apartment [at the time] and I laid my head down on a desk… and I [just] cried… and I cried… and I cried; I just kept crying. I asked God, “If it is going to be this way [to] please… please [just] let me die!” I didn’t want to be this way… I didn’t want this to be who I was going to become… I didn’t want any of it. In the midst of my crying… I had laid my head down [like I said]… and next to me… literally right next to me… was the Bible. Every once in a while I would take a sneak peak [in there] to see what God had to say. [So] the Lord told me to open up to psalm 91. As I read it out loud I knew that God was laying before me a decision [and] it was a decision to choose life with Him or to choose death… which was to go ahead and let myself die. I laid my head on the Bible… I [just] kept reading those words [and] I had always heard that God’s Word was alive [and] that it was living [and] it had never happened for me BUT in that moment I knew that those words seeped into my own body and gave me life again! It was the most powerful experience that I had ever had with God. No-one could ever tell me that it didn’t happen because I know that I am standing here… and I know that after my first treatment… glory to God… that after my first treatment the tumor was gone! All of the things that they said was going to happen to me… I was going to lose my hair… I was going to get sick… I went in to every treatment on my own two feet and I said, “This is not going to take me. You [guys] can treat me BUT this is it… this is God… this is it!”

So… change occurs when we stop making excuses. We stay focused on God and we stop trying to rush the process. I am all about doing stuff quickly. I am [seriously] all about doing stuff quickly. I was telling my husband the other day… sometimes I am [like] “Honey, I would like your input!” My husband likes to [so much] think about it… talk to the Lord. I mean… come on [you know]… I am [like], “What is your decision?” He doesn’t say anything… I am [like], “OK!” So I [just] walk away… and I go and make my own decision, I go out on my own. He comes back to me and he is [like], “This is what I heard…” I go, “It is too late [you know]… I already did what I was going to do!” I realize that I had to stop doing that because my husband was seeking the Lord… which I am [like] “Wow, what an odd thing to do!” I was [like], “I have got to seek the Lord too!” [You know] he is the head of our household even though I think to myself, “Really!” [I’m sorry]… He is the head of my household because that is the way that God designed it and He ordered it to be. I did that on purpose… I’m sorry… [So] that is the way that God designed it and ordered it to be so he is going to hear from God… even though I think, “There is no way… he is watching ESPN… that he is going to hear from the Lord… there is no possible way!” BUT it happens! I listen to him… and usually when I listen to him… I have started to practice listening to him… good things happen in our life; go figure! {So] I realized that I had to stop making excuses… I had to say, “OK, I am going to slow down!” It is not [just] about the bottom line… it is about what God says.

Change comes slowly… most of the time… for a variety of reasons. Many times we want the miraculous to happen in an instant so that we don’t have to fight and push against the pain and the hurt. However, in the middle of the process we are going to have to fight… we learn to do things so that if something happens again we will know how to react… it is not [just] over-reacting. We can react with the right decision in the right moment. We learn to make better decisions and we learn more about the Lord and become more comfortable and stable in our ability to trust Him. In the process we take responsibility for our actions so that we can move towards the prize [the victory] in our life… which is God and His Kingdom!

I am going to tell you a quick little story and then I am going to be done. I was watching this movie and there was this couple… they were a young couple and it was their first time being parents. The husband [he is so cute]… he is so eager, “I am going to be a great dad”… he is doing all of these things… they go to Lamaze classes… “I have my whistle around my neck”… “I have got this figurine so it can be the focal point when she is in labor”… they are like “We are set… we will do this [all] natural”… none of them had ever done this before. I am looking at it and I am [like], “That is so stupid…” So, as they go through the process she goes in to labor… the first couple of times they hold each other’s hands and look lovely into each other’s eyes… she breathes and he is [like], “I am an awesome coach… I am awesome!” They go to the hospital… the nurse comes in… the nurse is [like], “You [guys] are new, right?” She somehow… God forgive me… is like Jean because she [just] laughed at them. She was [like],”Yes, you [guys] keep breathing… that is going to work out great…” The nurse goes back to the nurse’s station and she places a bet about what is going to happen next… “Who is going to get hit first?” So… they go through… and the contractions start to get stronger. The husband pulls out the figurine and he is [like], “Honey, look at your focal point! Look at your focal point!” The first time… she looks at it… “Thanks honey!” You see her roll her eyes just a touch. The contractions are getting closer… and they are stronger [now]. She is [like],”When he leaves to go to the bathroom…” which I don’t know what husband would do that BUT he leaves to go to the bathroom and the nurse comes in… they had previously said “We are not going to do drugs…” The woman who is in labor… [like] real labor… she says, “Can I get some drugs?” They are [like], Are you sure?” “Positive, just do it now!” “I want the drugs!” The husband comes back out… the wife has the drugs… before she gets the drugs the contractions are so close… I am thinking to myself, “Man, that looks like it really hurts… for real!” Even though it is a movie it looks like it hurts. The husband is [like], “Honey, look at your focal point!” She smacks the focal point… the little figurine… out of his hand. The nurse comes in… it was Jean… and she is laughing, “How is that focal point working out for you?” The husband looks… he looks so sad, “I don’t understand, she has lost her focal point!”The nurse says to him, “She hasn’t lost it… she has changed it” which is different.

God is our focal point! When we are in the throes of change… whether we decide for it to happen or something happens or decisions in our life have happened… what is going to happen… We don’t lose our focal point. God is not moving… we change it! We are looking at our pain… I know that I do it… and I can’t be the only one on this earth that does it. We change… we change our focal point and God is saying, “I am your focal point. I want you to look at Me… and I want you to stay steady on Me… because I will give you light!”

I am all about light… in my house very light… I want baseball stadium light on… My husband wants [like] a bat cave… it is cooler… whatever! So, I want as much light as possible. Sometimes God gives you a little bit of light… just one Word… “Come!” Just one… one simple… end of sentence; [really] there is no more than that. BUT you step out on that word… and God will take you to places that you have never been to before!

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