Christian Atheist - Session 5 - When You Believe In God But Don't Think You Can Change And You Believe In God But Still Worry All The Time

The Church of Divine Guidance Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study Group is going through the book The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.  A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God but lives as if He doesn't exist.  If you are courageous enough to admit that sometimes you act like a Christian Atheist maybe along with us we can shed some of our hypocrisy and live a life that truly brings glory to Christ.  To hear the audio of the study group session click on the YouTube Thumbnail 

To get your copy of the book click this LINK or the image of the book at the end of my notes for the study.  

This week our chapters were 7 When You Believe in God but Don’t Think You Can Change, 8 When You Believe in God but Still Worry All the Time,

Identifying the Lie

Many Christian Atheists live year after year under the illusion that we simply can't change. Once we’ve forgiven ourselves for past mistakes, some surrender to present problems, never even hoping to overcome them. We may openly, even proudly, believe in God, but we honestly don’t believe he can change us.  Christian Atheists who’ve tried to change and failed, wrongly believe that God simply can’t change them.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:3 – 4).

The Greek word translated as strongholds is ochroma (pronounced oak-EW-ROH-muh), which means to fortify, lock up, or imprison. This is what our enemy tries to do to us. He lies to us until we’re convinced that we’re stuck and can never escape our Problems.

Admitting to the problem

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:14 NIV

“They’re imprisoned by false thoughts, all along believing they can never escape, never change. And then there are those who have serious problems but don’t even know it. They too remain locked in a prison they're not even aware exists.”
       

Whatever the challenge, the first step is often the most difficult, and That’s admitting that there is a problem.   Too many Christian Atheists won’t acknowledge their problem in the first place. I wouldn’t for years. We can always find plenty of excuses why it isn’t that big of a deal. But if we won’t admit our problems, we can’t change.

God Can Help You Change

Admitting our problems is only the first step. After that, we must invite God to work,
because he is the one who can change any problem.

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is  to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Mark 10:24‭-‬27 NIV

With people, change maybe difficult, even impossible—but not with God. God is bigger than our problems, no matter what they are. If you’ve believed that you simply can’t change, acknowledge that that is a lie. With God, all things are possible.

Ask Yourself

When working with people who think they can’t change, I ask six simple questions.  If a person answers yes to three or more, chances are they have a problem.
        
Do your family and friends say you have a problem? Even though you might deny it, others can often see more objectively than you.

Do you continue even though you are hurting people? If you look at what some people claim has control over you, do you keep practicing or giving in to it, even when it affects others negatively? You don’t want to hurt people. But if they continue to suffer because of your actions, chances are good that you have a problem.
           

Do you arrange your schedule, priorities, or spending around it? If you make major life changes to get your “fix,” odds are, your fix has a stronghold on you.
           
Can you go one week without it? When I couldn’t go one week without work, it became obvious I had a problem. If you can't walk away from something for a week, you’re in bondage to that thing.
           
Is it driving others away? Once an addiction reaches advanced stages, it tends to isolate the one who’s addicted.  When your actions continually hurt, abuse, or neglect others, they tend to pull back.
           
Are you denying it is a problem or trying to keep it a secret? If you feel defensive, adamantly insisting that you don’t have a problem, you likely have a problem. If you’re hiding some behavior from others, there’s a reason. You need to address it head-on instead.

Can the Excuses

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
John 5:1‭-‬3‭, ‬6‭-‬7 NIV

This hurting man was offered the opportunity to see God’s power. But he had grown so accustomed to his condition that he was focused on all the reasons he’d never get better.

If you have any excuses talking you out of changing, capture those wrong thoughts and replace them with truth. Paul said, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3‭-‬5 NIV

Grab any thought contrary to God’s,  overtake it, and replace it with truth.  Remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Phil. 4:13).

Remind yourself that you have the mind of Christ. God is renewing your mind daily (1 Cor. 2:16; Rom. 12:2). When you feel bad about yourself and start sliding into those all-too-familiar thoughts, remember that if you follow Christ, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of you (Rom. 8:9 – 11). You are created in God’s image (Gen.1:27). He knew you before you were born (Ps. 139:13 – 16). He has grand designs for your, great works that he planned in advance for you to do (Eph. 2:10).

Surrender to God’s power

If you believe you can’t change, you’re right—sort of. Your strength is limited. Your willpower isn’t bottomless. Your determination will eventually run dry. That’s why to change for good you need the power of the only one who is good—Christ!
        

In Colossians 1:29, Paul says,

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:28‭-‬29 NIV

The word translated as “strenuously contend” is the Greek word agonizomai (ag-oh-NID-zohm-ah-hee). It means to struggle or compete for a prize. It literally means to compete with an adversary—and win.

It’s important to notice how we’re supposed to struggle, to fight. The Bible says we agonizomai with “all Christ’s energy.” We change by his power, not by ours.

You can’t change in your own power. If you feel overwhelmed by something bigger than you, let the one who is bigger than all things be the power you need in your weakness.

Worry Is Not Your Friend

For Christian Atheists, our worry proves we don’t trust in God as we claim to. We think,
I know God’s a good God and all that, but I’ve got this situation handled. And when it turns out we don’t have it handled, then it falls to us—not to God—to fix it.

Worry is the opposite of faith; therefore, it’s sin.

But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23 NIV

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6 NIV

hen we live by faith, we believe that God has everything under control. But if we start to worry, how we live says the opposite. If we are worried about losing our jobs, we are essentially saying that our jobs are our providers. But isn’t God our provider? What if God has something else planned for us? And what if, as unpleasant as it may be to think about, the path to that “something else” is through some pain?   Will we still trust in God to provide during that time?
        
Worry, in essence, is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God. It's choosing to dwell on, to think about, the worst-case scenario. It’s faith in the bad things rather than faith in God. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (NLT). In this verse, you could also easily translate “fear and timidity” as “anxiety, tension, and worry.” Fear doesn’t come from God. It’s a tool the evil one uses to distract us from our true purpose here.
        
In Matthew 6:25, Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” The Greek word Jesus uses for “life” is psuche (SUE-kay). It doesn’t just mean your breathing life, the force that makes your body go. It actually means every aspect of your life, taken together in total: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. It means your yesterday, today, and future life.  Jesus is simply saying don’t worry about anything.

Freedom from Worry

Two steps toward freedom from worry are to do what’s wise and to think on the right things. As Christians, we can be tempted to “overdo faith.”

God does give us responsibility, and it takes biblical faith to do those things in dependence on God. Scripture says over and over again, in as many ways as you can think to say it: do what’s wise. Proverbs 9:12 says, “If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you.”

If you do catch yourself worrying even after you’ve done what was wise, remember that God is bigger than our problems, and that he wants us to hand them over to him. Worry then becomes a signal alerting us that it’s time to pray.

When we tell God what we’re worried about or what we need, we are giving our burden to him. We still have responsibility to do what we can, but doing what we can’t isn’t ours anymore. Anytime we try to take back God's responsibilities onto our shoulders, we remind ourselves, Now that’s his problem. And we can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s part of that supernatural peace he promised  (Phil. 4:7).

When our minds begin to wander like that, we must learn to recognize and label worry for what it is. Itis the alarm calling us to pray. We can start by telling ourselves, This is not a God thought. This is a thought based on fear. Then we must capture that runaway thought and make it obedient to Christ. Philippians 4:8 says, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” As we continue to pray, we can shift our minds from fear-based thinking to faith-based thinking.

No Matter What Happens, Trust God

Who do we believe in more? Ourselves or God? Our actions and decisions will reflect that.
      

If God does what you think he should do, trust him. If God doesn’t do what you think he should do, trust him. If you pray and believe God for a miracle and he does it, trust him. If your worst nightmare comes true, believe he is sovereign. Believe he is good.
        
In Matthew 6:33 – 34, Jesus says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,   for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Godis outside of time. He has no beginning, and no end. That means he has no yesterday and no tomorrow. He just is. So for God, tomorrow is the same as today, same as yesterday.
          

Was God in control yesterday? Undoubtedly, yes. Is God in control today? You know he is. Then he’s in control tomorrow too.
        

Time is not an issue for him. He’s already present in tomorrow. So no matter what happens, trust God.
        

Listen to his promise: “ ‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11).
         

Even if the future God chooses for you isn’t the one you would choose, trust him.

Bible Study Audio