New Values, New Priorities

When we find God we find peace, joy, meaning, contentment and an everlasting love. When we find God we are forever changed, the more time we spend in His presence the more our values start to change. God softens my heart when I spend time with Him, life becomes less about me and more about loving others. When I think back at how differently I used to view the world fifteen years ago I smile, if God can change me that much he can change anyone. When I see evil in the world it makes me sad but never hopeless, because I know that when God gets a hold of a person’s heart no evil will prevail. God has the power to change even the most self-centred cold-hearted person. I’ve seen many former criminals and gang members tell their story, with tears in their eyes, about how everything changed in their lives when God got a hold of their heart. One of my friends went to prison for ten years, today he is a loving husband and father of three young kids. If you met him you would never guess that this man once was a member in a dangerous gang.

When we develop a personal and real relationship with God himself everything changes. I can not change myself, only God has the power to change me. Wearing a cross around your neck won’t change you. Visiting church a few times a year won’t change you. Being religious and following all the rules won’t change you. Only God himself can change you, and He will. Nobody ever meets God and walks away unchanged. God doesn’t change us over night, but the more time we spend in His presence the more change we will see. Timothy Keller explains how our whole world view changes when we encounter God’s presence. In his book “The Reason for God” Timothy Keller writes:

“In this peaceable kingdom there is a reversal of the values of the world with regard to power, recognition, status and wealth. In this new counterculture, Christians look at money as something to give away. They look at power as something to use strictly for service. Racial and class superiority, accrual of money and power at the expense of others, yearning for popularity and recognition, these normal marks of human life, are the opposite of the mindset of those who have understood and experienced the Cross. Christ creates a whole new order of life. Those who are shaped by the great reversal of the Cross no longer need self-justification through money, status, career, or pride of race and class. So the Cross creates a counterculture in which sex, money, and power cease to control us and are used in life-giving and community-building rather than destructive ways.”