2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

Yesterday I witnessed to you my first change. My angry disappeared without any effort on my part whatsoever. My contemporaries would be right to judge me and say I had not changed. Anger is a responsive reflex condition. It was only one of many things within view of the life I lived. I still suffered from many of the personality traits of a lost soul.

Scoffers look at those who proclaim change of heart and declare, “You are no different than I am.” In their eyes it is true. What they fail to understand is that in the eyes of God He sees the Son whom He sent to be a sacrifice to ransom my soul. One change does not reflect a life lived for Christ. It is only a beginning.

Look at anyone who is standing still. Does one step tell you were they are headed? No, of course not. Neither does a word spoken necessarily reflect a heart that is newly changed. It is in the process of discovering what has changed. It is all new and the mind has not yet recognized these changes.

Growth in Christ takes time. Like babies just learning how to walk we will discover our feet are unsteady and we will trip from time to time. Others will see that and scoff at us and say, “See he is no different.” They are right from only one perspective. They cannot see our hearts or our intentions. They do not see the path before us that we only know by faith.

It is an early mistake to say I know where I am going. As new creations we are told; “Go to a place I will show you.” This was as God spoke to Abram. Knowing what we will have to encounter on the way will force an infant to make choices they are not mature enough to make.

Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

As a teen in the 1960’s I was angry all the time without understanding why. I would get into fights without cause or justification. I feared that I was headed toward a destructive life that was beyond my control. Then one Sunday I prayed to God for the first time. I was not sure about Him, only that I was desperate for change. I said, “I am tired of being like this.”

I raised my hand at the alter call without understanding why or even if I was in control of my faculties. In that moment my anger left me and I was changed.

Jeremiah 29:12-14a Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord:

This was God introducing Himself to me. All it took was an honest confession of condition and he changed me. There was no self-effort on my part, there was no force of will. God just took away the anger.

I was in awe of the moment. I was bewildered by how it happened. I was not exactly sure what had happened. This God had the power to change my emotions. I didn’t expect Him to do that. I didn’t know what to expect when I prayed for the first time in my life. It was not a formal prayer.

The quoted verse above says come and hear all those who fear God. Those who believe in God and have a reverent fear of God will accept my witness as true. There are others who scoff at what I have said.