Grace through Wisdom – The Leopard Can Change It’s Spots

Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)  
    As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. [39] She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. [40] But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
    [41] "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, [42] but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Last week: The things that we believe very deeply and the habits of our personality are the areas that are least open to correction

A characteristic of personality is that it protects itself and does not like to change

Luke 6:41-42 (NLT)  
    "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? [42] How can you think of saying, 'Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

Personality is often unaware of itself because we don’t question what we are familiar with – which means that we are often blind to our personality weaknesses

Biblical Principles that Break the Idea of Personality Types

a. The book of Proverbs emphasizes the development of a wise heart that encompasses the wise expression of the mind, feelings, duty and practical life

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)  
    Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.

b. The Fruit of the Spirit breaks all personality boundaries and personality blind spots

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)  
    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

c. Jesus shows us how to break personality blind spots and boundaries by showing that He too had to cultivate and develop all areas of His life and personality

Luke 2:52
     "Jesus increased in wisdom (i.e. mental, emotional, practical and moral maturity) and stature (physical maturity) and in favor with God (spiritual maturity) and man (social maturity)."

Hebrews 5:8 (NLT)  
    So even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

d. God has even hardwired us with the capacity to change physically (neurologically) to support our weak areas in order to thrive well in this world

1.  Remember God’s grace, we don’t change first before coming to God.  Rather, we come humbly to God first, ask for a changed heart and then strength to change

Grace always begins with humility – humility to accept God’s perspective and truth about us – even truths about us that deeply embarrass or shame us…

Grace always leads us back to the cross – to remind us of God’s unconditional love and where God even nailed our personality blind spots there

Grace reminds us that we are not alone in our weakness – God sends His Holy Spirit to transform our weakened hearts and empower us towards victory

Be humble and willing to accept that some of the convictions that we have are based on misguided personality habits and blind spots

2. God’s Grace gives us the partnering strength to make immediate and small personality corrections along the way

Romans 12:2 (Msg)  
    Don't become so well-adjusted to your (personality) culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Hebrews 11:40 (NIV)  
    God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

3. Because breaking through personality blind spots and false boundaries takes time, start immediately but persevere and be patient!
                 
The Dachshund
There was a dachshund once so long
He hadn’t any notion
How long it took to notify
His tail of an emotion.

And so it happened, while his eyes
Were full of woe and sadness,
His little tail went wagging on
Because of previous gladness.

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote,

“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

“Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all....In fact, the state of being in love usually does not last....But of course ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love...is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both partners ask and receive from God....They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enable them to keep their promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.”